Episode Summary
Availability, affordability, and digital literacy are still inadequate for much of Africa’s population. Dr. Albert Zeufack encourages us to focus on the potential instead of the challenges in the building blocks for the Digital Economy of Africa. He highlights bright spots in individuals, companies, and government.
Full Show Notes
Topics discussed in this episode:
- Dr. Albert G. Zeufack, a Cameroonian national, is the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa.
- We discuss the five building blocks for the Digital Economy in Africa
- Digital infrastructure – Broadband
- Connectivity
- Digital entrepreneurship
- Financial inclusion – Digital finance
- Digital skills – perhaps the most important block we haven’t been investing in enough.
- Availability, affordability, and digital literacy are still inadequate for much of Africa’s population. There is still a lot of work to do.
- We spend time discussing the education system in Africa and it can start to prepare students for the digital economy by adding essential training to the core curriculum.
- We talk about creating an entrepreneurship ecosystem and the challenges it faces.
- Although there is obvious room for growth in each of the building blocks of the Digital Economy, some of the leading countries in the world are in Africa.
- Digital is not a sector, it is a cross-sectional enhancer of productivity. So taxing the digital sector as a commodity is a mistake.
- Less than 50% of Africans do not have access to electricity. We need to address this at the same time or the conversation about the digital economy could be moot.
- Although we have so many obstacles right now, Dr. Zeufack remains excited about the digital economy is by choosing to look at the opportunities it will provide.
- Wangari asks Dr. Zeufack to put a monetary value on the digital economy in Africa. His response was getting to a number will be very difficult to measure. So given all the building blocks we spoke of earlier it would be better to focus on opportunities like job creation both at low-level skills and high-level skills and we should invest in that.
- We discuss how individuals can contribute to the development of Africa’s digital economy.
Quotes from this episode:
- Our education systems should take this opportunity to reflect a deeper change that starts to produce the skills for the economy of the future. ~ Dr. Zeufack
- 20 years ago, if someone had said when it comes to technology, that the leading country of any kind would be an African country, it would have caused people to laugh… But it is the reality and we need to acknowledge progress. ~ Dr. Zeufack
Discussed in this episode:
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