The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is the new buzzword that is on everyone’s lips. The projected everyday applications of 4IR evokes images from sci-fi movies where the line between machines and humans is blurred, if not completely non-existent.
By Sudipto Moitra GM: ICT at MTN Business
It is easy to dismiss the capabilities and applications of 4IR as pointless gimmicks that will not have any material benefit for millions across the country, almost half of whom are living below the poverty line according to the Living Conditions Survey conducted by the Statistics SA.
The growth prospects of South Africa’s economy look equally bleak – the country’s economy contracted by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019 following a contraction of 0.8% in the third quarter of the same year.
This lacklustre economic performance does not bode well for the economy’s ability to generate much-needed employment opportunities – the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation estimates that a growth rate of around 10% will be required to absorb approximately about 700 000 new young people entering the job market every year and make a noticeable dent on the stubbornly high unemployment rate.
Looking at the gloomy economic picture, is the Fourth Industrial Revolution the remedy that can fire up the lethargic economy into life and offer hope to millions of people who are on the fringes of the mainstream economy?
A report by Accenture and the World Economic Forum forecast that 4IR technologies across industries in South Africa can, over the next decade, contribute R5 trillion worth of social and economic value. The report also predicts that these technologies will create 4-million jobs.
Should the forecasts be accurate, they will go a long way towards allaying the fears that 4IR technologies will displace millions of jobs as companies opt for digital and mechanised solutions to substitute labour.
In a society that is characterised by cavernous inequalities, grinding poverty and spiralling unemployment, it is difficult to get the majority of the populace to be excited about this new digital era that is characterised by the blurring of boundaries between the physical, digital and biological worlds.
South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world – and it is therefore understandable why there are concerns that 4IR technologies will exacerbate the spectre of inequalities and render millions of employees redundant. The jury is still out on what solutions will new generation networks such as 5G enable. It is no wonder then that companies are playing a game of wait and see.
Though the use cases of 4IR are yet to be properly configured, industry analysts agree that the possibilities are infinite. Artificial intelligence has immense benefits for example on the healthcare sector as it enables medical professionals to produce a medical diagnosis from an x-ray faster than a radiologist and with pinpoint accuracy.
Robots can manufacture cars faster and with more precision than assembly line workers. They can potentially mine base metals like platinum and copper, crucial ingredients for renewable energy and carbon cleaning technologies.
3D printing has the immense potential to transform manufacturing business models in almost inconceivable ways. Autonomous vehicles will change traffic flows by avoiding bottlenecks. Remote sensing and satellite imagery may help to locate a blocked storm water drain within minutes and avoid city flooding. Precision farming could solve food security challenges and mitigate the challenges of food security bought about by climate change.
There is no doubt that despite some of the challenges presented by 4IR, this new wave of digitisation is presenting us with exciting economic opportunities.
Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum, put it succinctly when he said: “Rapid technological advances in renewable energy, fuel efficiency and energy storage not only make investments in these fields increasingly profitable, boosting GDP growth, but they also contribute to mitigating climate change, one of the major global challenges of our time.”
History has shown us that technology adoption has the potential to cause significant short-term labour displacement, but conversely it creates a multitude of new jobs and unleashes demand for existing ones.
In recent times, connectivity has also created new industries and ecosystems that has created multi-billion-dollar companies and generated millions of jobs.
For example, technology companies are becoming the fastest-growing enterprises in the world. According to Statista, the world’s top biggest companies by market valuation are all technology companies Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba and Microsoft.
It is critical to note that the realisation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution would not just materialise on its own. The public sector, enterprises and SMEs need to be support by a robust and resilient network infrastructure that makes all this possible. MTN is in an uncontested position to drive this revolution through its unparalleled network infrastructure.
It has unrivalled ICT platforms to support hybrid Cloud, machine to machine solutions and enterprise security, which translate to the biggest multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) infrastructure in Africa, 48 data centres across the continent that serves clients across South Africa and the rest of Africa and the Middle East.
The continent’s biggest mobile network operator has cumulatively invested billions of rands in 15 major undersea cables, the invisible force that drives the modern internet, and operates over 30 landing stations. The investment in multiple undersea cables ensures business continuity for it gives MTN the ability to redirect data traffic to numerous routes when one of more cables gets damaged.
South African based enterprises who are digitising their operations can take comfort in the unmatched network infrastructure that is backed up by eight national data centres, 30 regional data centres, the second biggest fibre network in the country spanning over 18,800 kilometres and a multiple award winning 4G network that covers over 91% of the population.
It goes without saying that the economic opportunities that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring will outweigh the risks. South Africa and the rest of the African continent is blessed with a young population that can harness the power of technology to extricate the continent from some of the pressing socio-economic challenges it faces.
South Africa and the continent cannot afford the luxury of being reduced to being spectators when these seismic changes are taking place.
In as much as the continent has leveraged the power of connectivity to pioneer the mobile money revolution, enterprises and the public sector also have an opportunity to harness the transformative power of connectivity and technology to plug the infrastructure gaps, combat poverty, drive development and provide much-needed economic opportunities to a growing young and tech-savvy population.