Kathy Gibson reports from Africa Tech Festival – Africa’s young population is key to the continent’s success in the digital economy – and forward-thinking countries are finding ways to leverage their passion and innovation.
A panel discussion with government leaders at the Africa Tech Festival explored how the youth can help to spark digitalisation and solve some of the continent’s most pressing challenges.
Monica Musenea Masanza, minister of science, technology and innovation in Uganda, says her government is actively trying to promote the development of local technology solutions.
“Africa is not traditionally a producer of tech, but a consumer of tech,” she says. “So Uganda is working on government policies to promote the local industry.”
Any conversation about technology necessarily means talking about the youth, she adds. “The majority of players in the tech industry – both consumers and generators of tech – are young people. So you cannot design effective policy without understanding them, giving them a voice, and involving them in the day-to-day decisions.”
Another thing Uganda is doing to localise the tech space is to conduct a lot of primary data collection and research within the country itself. “We have decided that any policies must be well-informed by data and research,” Masanza explains. “Because sometimes the popular global trends are not conducive for the local population.”
At the same time, government has initiated a programme to understand how tech research from local universities can be developed into national policy.
“Another thing that tends to happen in Africa is that we have young people developing tech inside our countries, but government imports technology from international players. We won’t impose on this, but we are engaging the sector and working on pilots with our young developers, spending time engaging and collaborating so we understand one another.”
Uganda is also convening think-tanks to encourage original thinking that goes beyond regurgitating international reports to identify and start to solve the country’s unique challenges.
Dr Margaret Nyambura Ndung’u, cabinet secretary and minister of Information, communication and the digital economy in Kenya, believes government’s role is to create an enabling environment for business to thrive.
To this end, it actively seeks public-private partnerships (PPPs) and is working on policies that create a business-friendly environment.
Some joint projects that are underway include data centres, fibre rollout, education and capacity-building, and digital innovation hubs.
“We are encouraging our young people to come up with innovative and sustainable solutions,” she says.
“Kenya has very talented young people, especially in the digital space. They are well-educated and we want to put their energy to productive use.”
A specific programme works with the regulator to test and pilot home-grown innovations and see how they can be commercialised. Another works with universities to take innovations from young people and start manufacturing products.
“In the process, we are consulting with the public,” Dr Ndung’u says. “There is a lot of data sitting in academia and business that we need to contextualise so we can build solutions that address our socio-economic challenges.
“For instance, we don’t want people coming to the cities for employment – we need to bring data to the people, where they are, and give young people the tools they need.”