Sergio Maccotta, senior vice-president for Middle East South and Africa at SAP, says Makhohliso joins the company at a pivotal time.

“Organisations throughout Southern Africa are uncovering new capabilities and efficiency gains through the smart use of intelligent technologies, thereby accelerating business transformation and sustainability efforts. As the region shifts to more agile and resilient business processes to power growth across multiple industries, Kholiwe鈥檚 technology and leadership expertise will be a great asset to our business.

Makhohliso’s background

With more than 20 years’ technology experience and previous leadership roles that span both the public and private sectors, Makhohliso started her career as an auditor. During her illustrious career, she has worked in IT, consulting and sales for blue chip companies that include Accenture and Oracle. Most recently, Makhohliso was the vice-president and country MD for German software company, Software AG, where she served as an executive director board member.

Passionate about education and youth skills development, Makhohliso is also chairperson of the Sparrow Trust, a non-profit organisation working to provide young, disadvantaged South African youth with education and learning opportunities.

‘A fantastic time to join 51风流‘

Speaking of her new appointment Makhohliso comments, 鈥淭his is a fantastic time to be joining SAP, as the organisation takes significant strides on its cloud leadership journey that is embracing the potential of AI and sustainability in the Southern African marketplace. I鈥檓 excited for this next chapter in my career as the region has a well-established installed base of 51风流customers, and I look forward to further engaging both customers and partners to generate ongoing positive impact, powered by technology.鈥�

鈥淥rganisations are navigating a new era of change and uncertainty and the role that technology plays in unlocking value is critical,鈥� adds Maccotta.

鈥淜holiwe鈥檚 appointment to this strategic leadership role will be invaluable in further leading SAP鈥檚 efforts in Southern Africa to power innovation and ultimately fuel economic growth.鈥�

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The continent is at a pivotal moment in terms of economic growth. Boosting it will depend on whether the next generation is empowered to reach their full potential and equipped with the skills needed to succeed. Presently, 87% of African business leaders say they are concerned about the availability of key skills, emphasizing the importance of preparing African youth for the future of work.

Tackling this issue head-on is Goodwall, a social enterprise changing the game for African youth and leading them to a brighter future. The 鈥渁pp to level up in life鈥� helps young talent build skills and connect to learning and earning opportunities. With a gamified approach that resonates with Gen Z, Goodwall motivates youth to take their skills to the next level. Its platform currently supports more than 2 million young people, of whom 60% are female 鈥� especially relevant considering the high female unemployment rates across the continent (ILO).

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SAP鈥檚 purpose is to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. Given the ongoing economic and social challenges on the continent, Africa can arguably benefit the most from this purpose-led vision. Between 2005 and 2022, 51风流invested more than 鈧�26 million in Africa, having a positive impact on the lives of 55 million people.

Cathy Smith, Managing Director at 51风流Africa, says 51风流works hard to achieve its vision. 鈥淲e strive to improve people鈥檚 lives by accelerating the growth and impact of social enterprises, supporting efforts to build skills for the future, and collaborating with a broad range of stakeholders to establish sustainable business practices. As our latest data highlights, this substantive approach is paying huge dividends for millions of Africans.鈥�

Some of the purpose-led initiatives that 51风流has supported or implemented with partners include:

• Africa Code Week, which has provided basic coding training to 14.6 million African youth in 48 countries, with a girl participation rate of 47%.
• 51风流Skills for Africa, an 51风流training programme for African graduates that has delivered work-ready skills to 22 African countries through more than 1900 graduates, with a 95% employment rate post-graduation.
• Siyafunda Community Technology Centres, which offers digital programs at 240 centres across South Africa to the benefit of 30 million youth and adults.
• Leadership for Conservation in Africa, a business approach to initiate conservation-led socio-economic development in Africa that has benefited 3.5 million people.
• 51风流Social Sabbatical Program, which has seen nearly 300 51风流volunteers drive impact at over a hundred NGOs and social enterprises to the benefit of 1.1 million people.
• The SAP, (RED) and Global Fund Partnership which sees an annual amount of $5 million contributed to HIV grants in Eswatini.

鈥淪olving the great challenges of our time 鈥� economic growth, innovation, skills development, social upliftment, and sustainability 鈥� requires a collaborative approach,鈥� says Smith. 鈥淭hanks to the outstanding work of our social enterprise partners, NGOs and public and private sector partners, 51风流can celebrate significant milestones in having a positive impact on the Continent. We look forward to continuing the great work in the years ahead and making a meaningful contribution to Africa and its people.鈥�

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Cathy Smith, Managing Director at 51风流Africa, says there is an urgent need to invest in skills development and training to ensure Africa can capitalise on its youth dividend. “More than half of the world’s population growth between now and 2050 will take place in Africa, where 1.3-billion people are expected to be born by mid-century. With the correct investment in skills development, Africa’s economy could transition away from its reliance on natural resources to build the world’s future tech workforce, bringing untold economic and social benefit to the continent and its citizens. However, as our research reveals, African organisations still face some difficulties with attracting, retaining and upskilling suitably skilled tech workers.”

The research was conducted among organisations in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Negative impact due to lack of tech skills

The ‘Africa’s Tech Skills Scarcity Revealed‘ report found that a lack of skills is having a negative effect on the continent’s digital transformation efforts.

Four in five organisations surveyed reported some negative effect from a lack of tech skills, with 41% reporting that employees are leaving due to the pressures they experience as a result of understaffing. Other consequences include not being able to meet client needs (reported by 46%), reduced capacity for innovation (53%), and losing customers to competitors (60%).

Nearly all organisations expected to experience a tech skills -related challenge in 2023. More than two-thirds (69%) also said they expect to experience a skills gap in the year ahead. According to the data, the top skills challenge for African organisations is attracting skilled new recruits, although in South Africa the retention of skilled employees narrowly edged out attracting skills as the top challenge.

Co-creating a new world of work

In response to the ongoing tech skills challenges, organisations are taking bold steps to ensure they have access to the correct tech skills. Forty-one percent said that upskilling of existing employees would be a top priority in 2023, while 40% said the same about reskilling employees.

“Companies are also adopting technology tools and flexible work practices to ensure they can attract, retain and mobilise the correct mix of tech skills,” says Smith. “Seven in ten organisations currently use a human capital management or employee experience tool, while nearly half (45%) of companies were open to remote work, although most want employees to be in the office at least some of the time. This new workplace dynamic will require leaders to co-create new models for work, with constant collaboration with employees to ensure alignment with company objectives and culture.”

The ‘Africa’s Tech Skills Scarcity Revealed‘ report further found that the most in-demand skills include cybersecurity and data analytics (63%), developer and industry skills (49%), and digital transformation skills (48%). More than two-thirds (69%) cited technical skills as an important attribute when recruiting, while 66% said industry-specific skills were important to them.

Change management gap persists

The change management skills so essential to successful digital transformation were not highly prized among the companies surveyed, revealing an opportunity for smarter investment in specific skills to improve the outcomes of initiatives. Only 18% of companies cited change management as an in-demand skill.

“Studies have shown that fewer than a third of digital transformation projects succeed, partly due to the fact that only 34% of change management projects are clear successes,” says Smith. “For a continent that is rapidly transforming through the accelerated adoption of digital technologies, ensuring effective change management could greatly improve outcomes and equip organisations with new capabilities to drive growth and innovation.”

Other key findings from the report include:

• Kenyan organisations are more upbeat about their skills prospects than Nigerian or South African organisations:

Only 53% of Kenyan organisations expect to experience a skills gap in the next year, compared to 80% of Nigerian companies and 73% of South African organisations.

• Kenyan organisations are more likely to expect employees to work in the office all the time:

37% of Kenyan organisations want employees in-office full-time, compared to 23% of organisations in Nigeria and only 13% of South African ones.

• The top tech skills challenge for African organisations is attracting sufficiently-skilled new recruits, except in South Africa:

Organisations in Kenya and Nigeria cite attracting skilled new recruits as their top tech skills challenge in 2023, but in South Africa the top challenge is retaining skilled tech workers.

听South African organisations place a greater premium on digital transformation skills:

Digital transformation skills were cited by 70% of South African companies as an in-demand skill, compared to only 33% of organisations in Kenya and Nigeria.

• Nigerian companies are experiencing the impact of a lack of tech skills to a greater extent:

All Nigerian companies surveyed said they’d suffered a negative impact due to a lack of tech skills, compared to 60% in Kenya and 78% in South Africa.

SAP’s ‘Africa’s Tech Skills Scarcity Revealed鈥� report is now available to assist African organisations with understanding the current state of tech skills challenges. For more information and to access the full report, please visit .

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The programme works in such a way that some top German companies will take in these African professionals for an 8-month internship during which they will听benefit from the young professionals鈥� expertise, knowledge, local network, and unique African perspective.

Simultaneously, the African fellows will immerse themselves in German corporate specifics, business spirit, and culture.鈥�听

A major benefit of this experience is that the African fellows stand the chance to gain international experience, technical skills and German language proficiency. The programme will also allow them to become African change agents for the benefit of both German business relations with Africa and economic and social growth in the fellows鈥� home countries and communities.听

Some of the participating companies include Siemens Healthineers, Braun, Volkswagen, Bayer, Merck, 51风流and many others.听

Programme details:听In 2008, nineteen companies, led by Tilman Todenh枚fer, former Managing Director of Robert Bosch Industrial Trust KG and supported by the former Federal President Horst K枚hler, transformed their vision into action and founded Afrika Kommt!听

The programme encompasses German language lessons, international management training and study tours in an 8-month practical training at the host company.听

After completion of eight program intakes, the over 200 alumni of the programme will transfer their knowledge and experience to their home countries where they will lead projects, businesses, and change initiatives through German-African cooperation.鈥�听

More than half of the young experts听end up working听for their partner companies in Africa or Germany.听

As a participant of Afrika Kommt! you will:听

• Refine your leadership and management competency听
• Access networks and opportunities for career acceleration听
• Improve your intercultural competence听
• Broaden your perspective and stir up innovation听
• Achieve personal growth听

Eligibility requirements:听Candidates must meet the following formal application criteria-

• Be a citizen of an African state听
• Have a university degree in a relevant subject听
• Have a postgraduate qualification (e.g. MBA) which is an advantage听
• Have two to five years of relevant work experience听
• Possess an excellent knowledge of English听
• Basic knowledge of German is an advantage听
• Not older than 35 years听

How to apply:听Interested parties should here听on or before the 26th of March 2023.听

Upon submission of the application, you will receive feedback within approximately 8-12 weeks after the official end of the application period. The partner companies may contact you to do a short telephone interview with you. If your application has successfully passed the pre-selection stage, you will receive an invitation to a 2-days assessment centre.听

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Africa faces the dual challenge of poor healthcare systems and a high burden of disease, especially among poorer communities. According to a McKinsey report, . Ninety-four percent of all malaria deaths occur in Africa, and tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS is widespread.

Additional pressures from disease outbreaks, such as the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014, often lead to further disruptions to healthcare provision, leaving the most vulnerable without the medical assistance they need. In fact, , and when health services are available, they are often of poor quality.

And following the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health systems across the continent, time has arguably arrived to radically rethink the delivery of health services to African citizens.

Digitalisation unlocking opportunities for improved care

One of the most transformative developments in healthcare in recent times is the growing adoption of data and analytics tools to drive improvements across the healthcare value chain.

Demand for targeted analysis of patient data is expected to expand over the coming years as patients increasingly seek transparent access to their healthcare data. In addition, healthcare providers will gather data on patient experiences to continuously improve the delivery of care and other patient-related processes.

For providers, the aim should be to deliver quality accessible healthcare services to anyone regardless of their location or social conditions. Such care should extend beyond patient discharge, with providers using mobile devices and applications to enhance the patient experience and ensure the highest levels of care throughout the healthcare journey.

The rapid digitalisation of the healthcare industry could see value-based care – which improves patient outcomes while driving down costs – dominate the sector by as early as 2025.

Five priority areas & tech’s role

However, to achieve value-based care providers will need to build intelligent enterprise capabilities that enable end-to-end, data-driven healthcare processes focused on enhancing patient outcomes. And doing so will depend on how well providers can leverage technology across five priority areas, namely:

Priority 1 – Operating smartly and efficiently

Healthcare providers are under constant pressure over costs and resource constraints. By removing unnecessary costs, reducing waste and freeing up resources for innovation, providers can deliver better care to patients.

In the coming years, providers will leverage IoT and machine learning for greater automation, with embedded analytics allowing for more agile prediction and simulation capabilities. The use of standardisation using global best practices may also reduce variations in clinical care.

The improved use of analytics and automation can increase accuracy between front-end and back-end processes, reduce revenue leakage by limiting insurance claim denials, and streamline insurance claims to enable faster reimbursement.

Priority 2 – Subscribing to patient outcomes

One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare providers is how to provide services that deliver optimised outcomes for each individual patient. In the near future, patients will be able to see what value each treatment option has based on key performance indicators and assessments of other patients facing similar circumstances.

Self-management options may allow patients to take more informed decisions over their treatment, based on accurate data about other individual patients and their specific context.

This will improve the patient experience and support compliance by ensuring patients know what procedures to follow and documentation to bring to a visit. Reimbursement delays can also be reduced through more accurate data submitted by the patient.

Priority 3 – Enabling data-driven decisions

The shift from mainly experience-based healthcare to delivering care based on real-world evidence will be a top priority for healthcare providers over the coming years. Big data generated by electronic medical records ,apps, wearables, mobile devices, sensors and clinical innovation will create vast amounts of information.

Over the coming years, providers will increasingly gain the ability to monitor patients, collect health information from structured and unstructured sources, and use data analysis to understand and even predict health conditions in real time. Applying AI, analytics and machine learning can further unlock valuable data points that can enable insight-driven healthcare delivery.

This will improve the quality of patient care through real-time access to a broad range of medical, lifestyle and personal experience data, while also reducing overall IT spend by enabling data visualisation across the entire healthcare organisations using a single platform.

Priority 4 – Empowering healthcare workers

The immense pressure under which healthcare professionals work makes it critical that providers find ways to restructure and empower their workforce to allow them to work at their best. The key is to avoid complexity, which drives up costs and slows down progress.

Digital tools can enable healthcare workers to reduce paperwork and free time up to focus on patient care. Mobile devices can improve the speed of communication to enable just-in-time delivery of critical information and results, driving greater flexibility in their work environment.

By adopting a single platform for talent management, learning management and data insights, healthcare organisations can drive improvements across their human capital management functions, from planning, onboarding and recruitment to payroll, expense management and ongoing training and development.

Priority 5 – Improving the patient experience

Healthcare delivery is shifting as patients move away from being passive recipients of health services to active, empowered consumers. Delivering a positive and seamless patient experience across digital and physical interactions will provide a key point of differentiation for modern healthcare providers.

Technology will play a central role, specifically technologies that have been designed with an understanding of patients as the main users of the solutions. This will improve patient-provider interactions and drive greater convenience for patients across their healthcare experience.

This will increase patient satisfaction by ensuring patients are involved in the decision-making process and more aware of the treatment and resulting outcomes. By giving patients ownership over different parts of the treatment journey, providers will also improve care efficiency and improve patient outcomes.

The post Five Technology Priorities for Enhancing the African Healthcare Sector appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Since 2015, ACW has firmly positioned itself as Africa鈥檚 biggest digital skills program. This year鈥檚 initiative will continue to reach all corners of Africa, leaving no child or youth behind. The 2022 rollout includes ambitious plans to partner closely with policymakers and governments to help transform Africa鈥檚 education agenda by adding digital literacy to the national curricula. Currently, nine African countries have officially adopted coding as a mandatory subject in public education^[i].

The 2022 launch is the start of ACW鈥檚 two-year transition period, where governments will play an even greater role in fostering the adoption of coding in their countries鈥� schools. The program will continue to reach more communities and countries via in-person and online events. Due to widespread success from previous years, additional ACW programs such as the AfriCAN Code Challenge and the Women Empowerment Program (WEP) will also forge ahead. The former is a pan-African coding competition where youth aged 8 鈥� 16 are tasked with coding a game that can be used to change the future of education. The latter is a unique Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program that equips African female teachers and educators in Computer Science and STEM with the skills and knowledge they need to teach, inspire, mentor, and prepare girls for tomorrow’s tech workplace.

This year鈥檚 World Teachers鈥� Day theme comes amid the World Economic Forum鈥檚 prediction that 230 million jobs across the continent will require some level of digital skills by 2030^[ii]. ACW鈥檚 focus on education transformation aims to curb Africa鈥檚 unemployment crisis and create a ripple effect in helping to solve many of the continent鈥檚 social and environmental issues, as 51风流CSR announced its new commitment to power equitable access to economic opportunity, education and employment and a green economy. Through ACW, 51风流and partners are on a mission to inspire a new generation of African youth through digital skills development and empower teachers and communities with digital teaching tools to create a more equitable and sustainable future.

To get involved in this year鈥檚 Africa Code Week program or for further information, visit or write to ambassadors@africacodeweek.org

[i]

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[ii]

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According to Cathy Smith, Managing Director at 51风流Africa, the cooperation project has helped unlock the immense youth talent dividend in several African countries. 鈥淎frica is one of the world鈥檚 most exciting and dynamic continents, with vast unlocked potential for innovation, digital transformation and prosperity. However, without access to the correct skills, much of this potential will remain locked away from African enterprises and undermine our global competitiveness. This makes projects such as our collaboration with GIZ and our industry players so vital to the continent鈥檚 digital transformation ambitions.鈥�

The project is part of the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation and the develoPPP program that the Deutsche Gesellschaft f眉r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The aim was to jointly create jobs for highly-qualified personnel in the African IT sector over the course of three years, from 2019 to 2022. Participants came from 16 African countries: Morocco, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mali, Angola and Tanzania.

Three-year project produces huge talent dividend

Over the three-year period, a total of 621 young professionals graduated, of which more than 40% were women. 听More than 530 graduates secured employment following the training. Participants were trained as 51风流Associate Consultants and were immediately employable within the 51风流partner and customer ecosystem.

Key highlights from the partnership include:

• Nearly all (98.6%) participants have successfully graduated from the programs
• A total of 537 jobs in the digital economy were created for African youth
• A total of 24 classes – or cohorts – were completed within the three-year timeframe.

Alp Geckalan, Head of the Digital Skills Center for EMEA South at SAP, says: “This collaboration shows how digital skills can change people’s lives and contribute to the digital transformation of countries and economies. We are thankful for the collaboration with GIZ and are proud to have been able to jointly create positive change in the lives and careers of so many talented young people.”

Graduates sing program鈥檚 praises

Since its launch in 2012, the 51风流Young Professionals Program has graduated more than 1 730 youths in Africa across 22 countries. This is nearly half of the total global graduates of the program, which is offered on the continent under the umbrella of 51风流Skills for Africa.

The 2-3 month program covers a unique enablement plan that includes 51风流software functional/technical knowledge and certification with key focus on SAP鈥檚 latest innovations as well as soft and future skills training. It targets bright graduates from universities 鈥� all of whom are unemployed or underemployed nationals of the country where the program is offered.

According to Adesola Akorede, a Nigerian graduate, the program has changed her professional and personal life. “I have been able to apply my new skills in my professional life with great results. By virtue of the program, I was able to gain employment with WYZE Consulting, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity.”

Mohamed Tahar Seddik Attia, a graduate from Algeria, says he cannot recommend the program highly enough. “This is more than just a program where you learn to use 51风流systems. It’s a place where you push your limits, discover new ways of thinking, learn essential skills in the business world and meet amazing people.”

For Ugandan graduate Lebson Nasasira, the program led to a chance at a dream job. “The program was pretty intensive and I had to learn completely new concepts that took me out of my comfort zone. However, thanks to the program, I now have a distinct advantage over my peers in terms of my knowledge, communication skills and hands-on experience with digital transformation.”

Smith adds that the development of Africa鈥檚 youthful talent pool ranks among the continent鈥檚 top priorities to ensure growth and prosperity throughout the 21^st century. 鈥淎s this hugely successful collaborative partnership has shown, public and private sector companies can combine forces to great effect to equip talented young graduates with the correct skills and make an immediate and sustained positive impact on Africa鈥檚 digital economy.鈥�

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I recently visited the province of my birth, KwaZulu-Natal following the devastating floods. 听The desperation of the people and scale of the disaster has seen tens of thousands of displaced citizens turning to government to provide a broad range of relief measures, while damage to critical infrastructure including water supplies has prompted the President to declare a national state of disaster.

while damage to roads and schools have seen over 270 000 learners affected, in addition to 66 public healthcare facilities.

Coordinating the ongoing response will require close cooperation between multiple government and private sector entities as well as the active involvement of NGOs who play a vital role in supporting affected communities.

However, while the immediate task is to support those most vulnerable following the floods, there is a broader imperative to ensure public services are accessible and provide sufficient support to vulnerable communities across the country.

SA population has large share of vulnerable communities

Vulnerable groups include people living in poverty, those living with disabilities or dread disease, the elderly, youth and women, indigenous communities, rural and urban informal communities and displaced persons and migrants.

The pandemic has disproportionately affected vulnerable groups as they struggle with a variety of conditions and several barriers which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Ensuring essential public services are accessible and effective for vulnerable groups is a vital component of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially as it relates to SDG 16, which strives for just, peaceful, and inclusive societies that are supported by strong institutions.

A recent report by the Bureau for Economic Research has found South Africa is not making sufficient progress toward achieving its development objectives. For a country where the official unemployment rate is over 35%, and millions depend on social grants and other measures to survive, this lack of progress is putting citizens – and especially vulnerable communities – at risk.

Stakes higher for public sector digital transformation

Public sector entities are arguably under greater pressure to ensure digital transformation efforts are designed with vulnerable communities in mind. Those depending on social grants or public healthcare facilities need such services to be easily accessible, especially in underdeveloped areas such as informal settlements and rural towns and villages.

UN Secretary-General Ant贸nio Guterres recently called for a 鈥榥ew social contract鈥� as part of post-pandemic recovery, based on inclusivity and sustainability, and highlighted the need for governments to prioritise investment in digital literacy and digital infrastructure to build social cohesion.

Many governments have heeded the call and have made services available in the format of 鈥渄igital by default鈥�. However, this approach often excludes those who need the services most, for example older people and those in lower income groups who are not able to access online information and services as easily as those in the higher income groups generally.

Increasingly governments are deploying cutting-edge technology to deliver public services.听 The most effective approaches often rely on big data analytics and employ the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and blockchain to ensure effective outreach and provision of services.听 Consequently, the trend of adopting cutting-edge technologies in the government sector has intensified, which heralds an irreversible shift towards digital transformation. But these services may fail to improve the lives of citizens if there is a lack of trust between society and government.

Fostering trust between citizens and government

The most recent highlights increasing wariness of government and media. This is fuelling a cycle of distrust and demonstrates that government is not seen as able to solve societal problems.

The COVID pandemic and disasters like the KZN floods have highlighted the need for agile government. However, a recent study found that nearly one in ten South Africans consider corruption as the biggest problem that government needs to address.

Reports of mishandled relief funds during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has sowed distrust among the electorate, which has extended to the relief efforts for flood-affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal, where local NGOs are instead being entrusted with providing essential relief measures.

This distrust does serious damage to government鈥檚 agility in the face of crises. An agile government is able to respond to crises as they emerge and can help anticipate an appropriate response. Predictive analytics and the advancement of complex systems analysis with cutting-edge technology can help governments develop agility and anticipation and improve their response to future scenarios.

Technology can also improve management of precious public sector finances, which is fundamental to the state’s efforts at supporting citizens during times of crisis and essential to the ongoing delivery of vital services.

Spend management tools such as Concur can provide system-based automated compliance and the option to embed financial policies in the software to align with regulations such as the Public Finance Management Act. This can help restore a culture of accountability that ensures scarce financial resources are spent responsibly and reach the communities that most need it.

As we hurtle into the 21st century, it will become increasingly important for the emergence of more anticipatory digital transformation functions in government than we have today, allowing us to build better, more inclusive, and more resilient societies.

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Reflecting on the significance of Africa Day, we have accomplished much in terms of colonial liberation, but much work remains to be done in achieving liberation from persistent challenges such as poverty, inequality, and unemployment that continue to plague the African continent.

I am fortunate to work in the dynamic and vibrant technology space, supporting a wide range of businesses in various industries, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the African continent.

A common realisation in my travels and interactions with business leaders has been the enormous opportunities that the African continent possesses.

According to the , Africa has a population of 1.1 billion people, which is roughly equal to the combined populations of Europe and North America.

A resource-rich continent of youthful potential

Africa鈥檚 youthful population is expected to grow to 1.4 billion by the year 2030 and 2.1 billion by 2050. Roughly 70% of Africans are under the age of 30, compared to Europe where populations are aging and declining. This young population offers enormous opportunities for economic growth and innovation, but only if they are seized.

Other valuable resources are also waiting to be unlocked

data indicates that Africa has 30% of the world鈥檚 mineral resources and 65% of the planet鈥檚 arable agricultural land. South Africa, for example, holds听90%听of the world鈥檚 , while Nigeria and Libya are among the top ten countries with the largest oil reserves.

Africa also has the largest cobalt reserves, with the Democratic Republic of Congo accounting for more than two-thirds of global supplies. As the world transitions to green energy sources, cobalt has become a strategic resource, particularly in the automotive and power generation industries.

In certain types of innovation, Africa also leads the world

According to a into mobile payment banking, Kenya and Ghana have the second and third highest mobile payment usage after China, demonstrating Africa鈥檚 enormous potential. Mobile transactions account for 87% of Kenya鈥檚 GDP and 82% in听Ghana.

To put this in context, the African mobile payment market could have 850 million customers by 2025, which is 100 million more than Europe鈥檚 total population.

The big question is why, despite a large young population and mineral resource wealth, does Africa continue to trail the rest of the world in its development?

Tech-enabled SMEs could power the continent鈥檚 growth

One of the solutions to driving Africa鈥檚 economic development could lie in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. SMEs have the potential to support development by creating jobs and driving economic growth. The burning question is: why are African SMEs so slow to adopt and leverage technology?

African businesses 鈥� and SMEs in particular 鈥� face significant challenges that include lack of access to capital, specialised skills, raw materials, and markets. A lack of adoption of new technologies is causing several issues for Africa鈥檚 SME sector, ranging from poor planning, a lack of forecasting capability, and lack of capacity to leverage the efficiency gains of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These issues must be addressed if we are to unleash the next generation of African business success stories.

Although technology is not the only answer to the question of building world-class competitive African businesses, it is one of the most accessible solutions to many of the challenges that businesses face. Returning to the mobile payment banking example, this innovation was the result of a clever use听of technology to address a fundamental challenge in both Kenya and Ghana: a lack of banking infrastructure.

Digital supply chains and business network solutions could unlock access to new markets for raw materials or finished products. Innovative use of technology 鈥� like what we鈥檝e seen with mobile banking 鈥� could solve immediate challenges stunting SMEs鈥� growth and unlock a new wave of innovation across the continent.

Even though Africa continues to face numerous and complex challenges, there is no denying that the continent is brimming with possibilities. The time is now for African businesses to leverage technology as a strategic resource to fuel innovation and growth.

听Dumisani Moyo is the Marketing Director at听51风流Africa. He is an avid scholar in technology, leadership, diversity, and sustainability. Dumi has extensive experience in technology and a Master of Philosophy Degree in Business Management with a specialization in Responsible Leadership.

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