Innovation and the development of a healthy small and medium enterprise (SME) sector will drive growth in Africa – both for SAP and for the region.
This is the word from Derek Kudsee, chief operating officer of SAP Africa, who says these two factors will come together to create opportunities on the continent.
Driving innovation, he says, is the fact that Internet connectivity has become pervasive in Africa. “We now have 16 submarine cables connecting the continent with a total bandwidth of 25Tbps,” Kudsee says. “The current usage is less than 1Tbps.”
This bandwidth can all for cloud computing and realtime analytical computing to become a reality, Kudsee says.
Industry needs are also contributing to innovation, he adds. “As the continent grows, so does the need for energy, resources need to keep pace. Specific needs drive the creation of solutions.”
Healthcare and financial services are two areas where Kudsee believes SAP can make significant contributions on the continent.
“The third area driving innovation is mobility,” he says. “There are 1,1-billion people in Africa; 300-million of them are in the middle class and 800-million are cell phone users.
“Think about the transition to smartphone and as they become contract subscribers so will more services be delivered by mobile. If you bring together these three forces there is an enormous innovation opportunity in Africa.”
SME development and growth is another cornerstone of SAP’s Africa strategy, says Kudsee. “At SAP we don’t want to be the only provider of every solution to every industry in every language. So we have a focus on co-innovation with SMEs. They may be small businesses, but big thinkers.”
Sap has partnered with Endeavour on the Emerging Entrepreneur Initiative which aims to mentor SMEs and create networks or partnerships.