, Managing Director: Emerging Africa at SAP, said: 鈥淥rganisations across the region are leveraging the latest technologies to build a trusted foundation for AI and amplify their insights and processes to transform the way they work. From harnessing collaborative AI agents to solve complex problems and accelerate decision-making, to seamlessly connecting their entire business value chain, West Africa鈥檚 business community is gearing up to unleash their full potential powered by cloud, data and AI.鈥�

The comments were made at 51风流Business Suite Innovation Day on September 17th, a special event for 51风流customers and partners to showcase how and come together to deliver exceptional value as part of the 51风流Business Suite.

Experts from across the 51风流ecosystem provided behind-the-scenes insights into the power of business AI and cloud, and how these new innovations combine powerful cloud applications with the most contextual and reliable data to enable collaborative AI agents to tackle the most difficult business challenges with confidence.

The event also included presentations by regional business leaders who have successfully leveraged 51风流technologies to accelerate growth and unlock new capabilities.

, Group Head: 51风流Centre of Excellence at , shared some insight into how the company leverages cloud technologies to power growth and drive efficiency. Dangote Industries Limited is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent, employing more than 30 000 people.

鈥淪ucceeding in today鈥檚 fast-paced business landscape requires strong foundations built on the latest technologies. Critical to this is a modernised enterprise resource planning landscape that enables organisations to fully leverage the power of emerging technologies, all built on a clean-core strategy that ensures the business has access to real-time, accurate data for decision-making.鈥�

, Country Managing Director for Nigeria at SAP, said: 鈥淎frica鈥檚 greatest wealth lies in its people, including our fast-growing youth population. Our ability to cultivate the right mix of skills is critical to our digital transformation ambitions, especially as we rush to leverage the power of AI and cloud in our businesses.

Research conducted by 51风流found that half of Nigerian businesses expected a 鈥榮ignificant鈥� increase in demand for AI skills this year. The SAP聽聽report also found that 93% of Nigerian companies already experience a negative impact on their innovation capabilities due to a lack of access to AI skills. The same report revealed that West Africa was the region most likely to partner with expert third-party providers to fill the AI skills gap in their organisations.

Khota adds: 鈥淭he region stands at the edge of a new era of growth and innovation powered by data, cloud and AI, and supported by a workforce geared for our emerging technologies. To ensure this collective effort succeeds, organisations need access to the right skills. While efforts at developing AI-ready skills are underway, companies should also explore ways to augment their skills base in the short term by partnering with our thriving ecosystem of expert partners and collaborators powering business transformation in the region.

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Brian Deaver, CEO at AMCE, says the partnership will make a meaningful impact on the patients served by AMCE. “We are delighted to join forces with Converge and 51风流to deliver transformational healthcare systems that meet the unique needs of the great people of Nigeria, West Africa, and beyond. This collaboration represents a crucial step in our journey to strengthen healthcare delivery with greater precision and better data-driven decision-making in the region as well as job-creation in and around Abuja.”

AMCE is aimed at making a decisive impact on non-communicable disease (NCD) care in West Africa by providing world-class clinical services complemented by an education and research programme. The organisation will deliver end-to-end Cancer, Cardiovascular, and Haematological care while driving improved clinical management through research聽and聽training.

The collaboration between AMCE, Converge, and 51风流marks a significant milestone in addressing critical healthcare challenges in Nigeria and the wider West African region.

, CEO at Converge, says the joint effort underscores a shared vision: empowering millions of lives by聽making quality healthcare accessible, efficient, and patient-centred. “Through the integration of , ISH Plus, and a suite of ancillary modules focused on enhanced quality and safety, this partnership enables a modernised, interoperable healthcare system.鈥�

He adds that the solutions are set to empower hospitals, clinics and government healthcare agencies to deliver faster, more accurate and more efficient care by addressing bottlenecks in critical areas such as patient administration, care delivery and workforce management. 鈥淎frica has a high demand on healthcare delivery with a shortage of skills. To deliver the value and scale the continent requires, we apply modern tools and techniques to support and augment the human engagement of nurses and physicians.”

Healthcare systems in the region face several challenges, including fragmented healthcare delivery, limited access to patient data, and operational efficiencies that lead to delays and poor patient outcomes.

By leveraging world-class technology and aligning with international聽standards, this partnership is set to enhance patient experiences, improve operational efficiency for healthcare providers, and provide sustainable, scalable healthcare delivery.

, Regional Sales Director for West Africa at SAP, says: “There is growing demand for enhanced delivery of critical healthcare services to meet the needs of Africa’s growing population. By leveraging technology and taking an innovation-led approach to healthcare delivery, organisations can make a real, lasting impact on the lives of African citizens. We look forward to working with our partners at Converge to support the vital work done by the African Medical Centre of Excellence in driving better health outcomes throughout the region.”

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This was the key takeaway at 51风流Innovation Day Nigeria, held in Lagos today.

According to Titilayo Adewumi, Regional Sales Director for West Africa at SAP, organisations are increasingly engaging in digital transformation initiatives to unlock competitive advantages. 鈥淲est African organisations are leveraging powerful new technologies and best practices to bring greater stability and predictability to their business models. In light of the growing importance of cloud and AI solutions, organisations across the region are also seeking to future-proof their processes and drive innovation at speed and at scale.鈥�

51风流Innovation Day is a series of global events held in multiple countries around the world. A South African event concluded in May this year. The Nigeria event featured key 51风流partners and customers, who shared their journeys and insights into successful technology-led innovation efforts.

James Fabola Jr, Chief Information Officer at renewable energy leader Arnergy, notes the important role that innovation has played in enabling his company to scale its solutions to a growing customer base. 鈥淲ith our new 51风流system and the ongoing support of our implementation partners, our business can confidently look at a new phase of growth and scalability that could see us play a central role in West Africa鈥檚 transition to cleaner, more reliable energy.鈥�

Arnergy recently chose GROW with 51风流for Scaleups S/4HANA Cloud to bolster its technological capabilities and introduce greater efficiency and accuracy to core business processes. The company was supported by 51风流and regional implementation partner ACED Consulting.

Abiola Folawewo, Managing Partner at ACED Consulting, says companies are hungry for the efficiency gains enabled by digital transformation. 鈥淐ompanies are in a race to streamline their operations and improve decision-making with accurate, real-time data insights. By working with experienced vendors and partners, organisations in the region can fast-track their innovation efforts and unlock significant business benefits.鈥�

Dumisani Moyo, Marketing Director at 51风流Africa, adds that the modern business landscape is marked by volatility and uncertainty, raising the stakes for digital transformation and innovation initiatives.

鈥淲idespread unpredictability is putting immense pressure on supply chains, revenue streams and profit models, especially in Africa. The critical question for business leaders in the region is how they can lead their organisations to a competitive edge despite the economic headwinds. Today鈥檚 event aims to empower businesses of all sizes with insights into how technology can help them stay competitive, drive sustainable growth, innovate at speed with AI, optimize processes, and gain valuable data insights.鈥�

Adewumi adds: 鈥淲est African organisations have access to a vibrant ecosystem of experts, implementation partners and best-of-breed technologies to support their innovation efforts. We look forward to working with business leaders in the region to unlock the significant business benefits of digital transformation and establish a solid foundation for their future growth, likely to be powered by cloud and AI technologies.鈥�

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According to Titilayo Adewumi, Managing Director at 51风流West Africa, bold steps toward educational reform are needed to promote improved learning outcomes and ensure the region an capitalise on the opportunities presented by abundant population growth. 鈥淭echnology should play a central and guiding role in enhancing education systems in West Africa. In Nigeria, for example, Edo state has launched a new system approach that leverages digital technologies to improve teaching and learning.鈥�

Challenges with education persist

With much of the developed world facing ageing populations and slowing population growth, Africa is expected to play a central role in the global labour market. The working age population in Sub-Saharan Africa will聽, accounting for more than two-thirds of total global population growth.

However, despite Africa’s youthful population, only 9% of children in sub-Saharan Africa that enrol in primary school make it to tertiary education,聽.

Mobolaji Abubakre Ogunlende, Commissioner at Nigeria鈥檚 Ministry of Youths and Social Development, says: 鈥淚n West Africa, and by extension, Lagos, only a fraction of children who start in primary school make it to tertiary education and even fewer manage to graduate. The root of this issue lies in the inefficiencies that plague our education systems, including the lack of digital transformation, which forces millions of students to compete for limited spaces in in-person educational institutions.鈥�

Adewumi adds. 鈥淎 lack of digital transformation in West African education systems means millions of students have to travel long distances to physically collect transcripts instead of simply accessing digital copies online.鈥�

Climate change is adding a further dimension to the region’s education challenges. The impact of droughts, floods, fires, heavy rain and heatwaves on education infrastructure聽.

One study estimates climate change could keep more than 12 million girls in lower-income countries from completing their education every year聽.

Bold steps needed

Experts are calling for bold action to address the region鈥檚 education challenges.

The World Bank’s Western and Central Africa Education Strategy 2022-2025, for example, brings top education leaders and experts together to advance the cause of education in the region. This strategy also sees investment of $3-billion into the education portfolio,聽.

聽strategy for enhancing education in Central and West Africa, the region’s education sector should focus on four key priority areas, namely:

• Access to education聽for all children, including an expansion of early learning programmes, vocational training, and national data production;
• Quality learning聽through improved teaching skills, quality standards, life skills programmes and early learning assessments;
• Girls’ education聽through programmes that support girls’ achievements in and through education; and
• Education in emergencies, especially for children living in conflict or disaster zones, where school safety, psychosocial support and information management are critical.

Private sector support critical

Adewumi says the private sector can play a critical role in enhancing education systems and outcomes in the region. 鈥淏y investing in education and skills development initiatives, the private sector can also ensure it has access to the skills it needs to succeed and grow.鈥�

聽revealed an acute tech skills shortage in the region, with only 3% of organisations saying they don’t expect to have significant tech skills challenges in 2023. More than nine in ten organisations (93%) also said the need for tech skills has increased in the past 12 months, with two-thirds of Nigerian organisations saying he need for tech skills has increased significantly.

To help organisations in the region address the tech skills shortage, 51风流introduced the 51风流Dual Study Program, which partners with top universities to take talented graduates into SAP-specific training and help them bridge the gap between university and the workplace.

Commissioner Ogunlende says: 鈥淯ndeniably, government infrastructure and programs are needed to adequately provide efficiencies not only by increasing conventional capacity but also leveraging on the capacity of private-run programs like the 51风流Dual Study Program and the 51风流Young Professionals Program that have demonstrated the positive impact of private sector engagement in youth educational programs. By creating a multi-pronged assault on the issue, we can make significant in-roads in upskilling our population. These are some of the plans we would be unfolding in the next set of months in partnership with SAP.鈥�

The 51风流Young Professionals Program provides a two- to three-month enablement plan that includes 51风流software functional and technical knowledge. Graduates receive certification from 51风流and exit the program as Associate Consultants, making them instantly employable within the broader 51风流partner and customer ecosystem.

This model creates benefits across the board: youth develop industry-ready skills and secure suitable job opportunities; 51风流partners and customers gain access to much-needed talent; countries benefit from the digital skills created; and 51风流itself strengthens its own ecosystem.

鈥淏y making timely investments into strengthening the West African education system, the region can more readily benefit from its abundant youth skills,鈥� says Adewumi. 鈥淗owever, considering pervasive challenges with access to quality education outcomes, organisations in the public and private sectors must come together to design suitable programmes that can accelerate youth skills development. Done correctly, this investment will pay dividends for decades to come.鈥�

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This is the advice of a technology executive, , who noted the oil and gas sector was facing an existential threat, and technology was key to help transition the industry to a future beyond the barrel.

Adewumi, Systems Applications and Products (SAP) Managing Director for West Africa, was responding to questions from聽 .

鈥淐ompanies in the region鈥檚 oil and gas sector are confronted by a singular question: is there a future beyond the barrel? Can the sector optimise its performance, drive greater sustainability outcomes, and pivot into new revenue streams?鈥� Adewumi queried.

鈥淭he oil and gas sector is absolutely critical to West African economies. Crude oil production in the region reached 1,8-million barrels a day in 2021, with Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Niger leading the way,鈥� he added.

While West Africa is the oil hub, there are vibrant sectors in Central Africa (Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon) while Angola, in the Southern African region, is the second largest producer in the continent after Nigeria.

Mozambique, in the southern region again is on the cusp of a liquefied natural gas boom while in North Africa countries include Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Sudan with South Sudan the only East African nation with abundance of oil and gas.

Adewumi said while the world was transitioning away from fossil fuels, the oil and gas sector would continue to play a vital role in the continent鈥檚 economic growth.

He cited the McKinsey data that suggested Africa鈥檚 energy demand could grow by 30 percent by 2040. This is well ahead of growth in global energy demand of around 10 percent over the same period.

鈥淭he oil and gas sector will be central to supporting the continent鈥檚 growing energy demands. However, there is no doubt that the sector must improve its sustainability efforts and leverage technology to more efficiently manage its operations, assets, and people,鈥� Adewumi said.

He said there were abundant digital transformation opportunities for the oil and gas sector provided they embraced readily available technology.

鈥淎rguably the greatest opportunity for West Africa鈥檚 oil and gas sector is the adoption of technology to drive efficiencies, improve sustainability, unlock alternative revenue streams and transform their operations.鈥�

Based on SAP鈥檚 work providing digital technologies to leading oil and gas companies in the region, he said there are three key opportunities for the sector to help transition to a future beyond the barrel, which comprise becoming a sustainability leader, scaling new capabilities with the cloud as well as smarter operations with intelligent asset management.

鈥淥il and gas companies face huge threats to their business model as the world shifts away from fossil fuels toward more sustainable, clean energy sources,鈥� the executive said.

鈥淗owever, it is a significant task to completely change business models without it having a severe impact on companies鈥� productivity and profitability,鈥� Adewumi said.

A report by Oxford Economics and 51风流identified a small group of oil and gas companies that followed sustainability best practices, improved their sustainability outcomes and enhanced their brand reputation.

To become a sustainability leader, oil and gas companies must invest in data analysis, construct a model that measures actions against performance throughout the company鈥檚 sustainability goals and capture accurate data to inform company leaders of carbon output.

鈥淭he return on investment for becoming a sustainability leader is significant,鈥� Adewumi said.

The Oxford Economics and 51风流report found that sustainability leaders enjoy robust bottom lines, are substantially more likely to experience profit margins in excess of 10 percent and have increased opportunities for significant long-term value for the business, people and society as a whole.

Cloud computing is hailed as offering oil and gas companies a significant boost in agility, allowing downstream and process sectors to leverage technologies for more efficient and optimised operations.

鈥淏y streamlining and scaling cloud capabilities as needed, oil and gas companies in the region can build nimbler corporate structures and unlock additional efficiencies, which can make a significant difference to such a labour-intensive industry,鈥� Adewumi explained.

51风流credits its S/4HANA Cloud offering for unlocking a wide range of solutions designed for greater efficiency.

This includes upstream contracts management to maximize asset usage and productivity, commodity management solutions that integrate procurement and sales into core financial and logistics processes, and solutions aimed at improving bulk transportation, inventory management and operational decision-making.

鈥淭echnologies such as intelligent asset management 鈥� a suite of solutions that brings collaborative asset intelligence to maintenance and operations 鈥� must be enhanced to meet the changing operational objectives and efficiency requirements that oil and gas companies are subject to,鈥� Adewumi said.

Companies that have adopted intelligent asset management unlock powerful predictive capabilities are best placed to avoid unexpected downtime due to breakages.

51风流reports its Asset Intelligence Network allows oil and gas companies to collect and track equipment information in real time, with internet of things (IoT) connected devices integrated to a cloud-based business network for maximum transparency and control.

Adewumi reiterated that by embracing technology and leveraging key solutions to improve operational efficiency and sustainability, the West African oil and gas sector can continue to be a valuable player in the region鈥檚 economic growth and development.

鈥淲ith new capabilities and greater agility, the sector could unlock opportunities to exploit new revenue streams for customers across the value chain,鈥� he concluded.

This article first appeared here:

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According to Titilayo Adewumi, Managing Director for West Africa at SAP, the past few years have seen a sharp increase in the adoption of cloud technologies among West African enterprises. “The digital transformation of organisations in the region is supported by powerful cloud technologies. Organisations adopting cloud are realising greater scalability, improved data and analytics capabilities, enhanced innovation and greater flexibility to adapt to disruption or emerging opportunities. Ably supported by a growing ecosystem of expert partners, organisations in the region are taking bold steps to becoming cloud-enabled intelligent enterprises that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with top global companies.”

She adds that, due to legacy underinvestment in technology, organisations in West Africa have a golden opportunity to leapfrog several technology adoption stages and reengineer their business models using the latest cloud technologies. “Cloud technologies are helping organisations replace manual processes, improve staff retention, and achieve greater agility in how they respond to opportunities and threats.”

Cloud adoption driven by benefits, challenges

A found that the main benefits of cloud adoption for West African organisations were greater business efficiency (63%), agility or operational flexibility (63%), improved customer service (43%) and increased speed or time-to-market (60%).

According to Adewumi, the growing adoption of cloud is driven by four main factors: the need to adapt to new hybrid work models; the changing needs and expectations of customers; ongoing disruption from new technologies; and the influence of a powerful ecosystem of partners that are taking advantage of the commercial opportunities offered by cloud technologies.

“51风流works closely with expert partners in the region to ensure West African organisations have the technology and business support they need to drive successful cloud-enabled digital transformation,” says Adewumi. “This is helping organisations reimagine human capital management, exceed customer demands, adapt to the impact of new disruptive technologies and become more sustainable and successful.”

According to Adewumi and several key technology partners in the region, these are three of the main drivers of cloud adoption in West Africa:

1. New models of work

One of the most disruptive factors for companies following the pandemic is building new capabilities to manage and enable a remote or hybrid workforce.

C2G Consulting’s Lauretta Oshomoh says the main digital transformation focus for their customers is human capital management. “Cloud is key to any digital transformation initiative and can help organisations manage their growing remote workforce. Cloud is also a vital way to reach customers and employees.”

Adewumi adds that organisations are also focusing on designing consistent, high-quality employee experiences to aid workplace productivity and talent retention. “A study by Forrester commissioned by SAP, Qualtrics and EY found that the number of HR decision-makers that said employee experience (EX) is the most important aspect of their HR strategy had nearly tripled over the past two years, with EX budgets almost doubling in the same period.”

Michael A Ogunlade, IT Transformation Consultant at EY cites the remote work exodus resulting from the pandemic as a transformation driver for cloud adoption. “Companies are leveraging cloud technologies to enhance their external and internal collaboration and improve their capacity planning and workforce management in a new world of work.”

2 Changing customer needs

It’s not only employee expectations that have shifted over the past few years; customers today demand greater flexibility and personalisation, combined with exceptional customer experiences.

“Companies are having to explore new ways of reaching and engaging with customers,” explains Adewumi. “Today, empowered consumers demand consistent customer experiences and high degrees of personalisation, forcing companies to leverage data and analytics capabilities enhanced by cloud technologies.”

Oluwole Oyeniran, Enterprise Technology & Performance Leader at Deloitte, cites cloud’s role in engaging consumers and customers in new ways. “Organisations that leverage cloud technologies are unlocking new capabilities including digital-first sales and customer service, more customer-centric marketing, and seamless customer engagement through digital self-service, chatbots and digital assistants.”

EY’s Michael A Ogunlade adds that one of the main habits of digital transformation leaders is their focus on customers first and foremost. “Cloud solutions are becoming increasingly important for companies to respond to changing market conditions and increase efficiencies. Successful cloud deployments can unlock greater customer value through high consumer-centricity, better customer experiences, and higher levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction.”

3 Ecosystem of expert integrators

According to Adewumi, one of the major drivers of greater cloud adoption in the region is the role of expert partners and integrators that have both the technology skills and market insights to help organisations drive successful digital transformation projects. “A growing ecosystem of experienced implementation partners are helping organisations in the region overcome obstacles to digital transformation, in the process helping improve the region’s global competitiveness.”

Technology partners are also realising immense business benefits from driving cloud adoption in the region. C2G Consulting’s Lauretta Oshomoh says their partnership with 51风流allows them access to development resources, demand generation tools and enablement services. “Being partners with 51风流gives customers a level of comfort and confidence in the services we render.”

According to Deloitte鈥檚 Oluwole Oyeniran, West African companies leveraging the partnership between Deloitte and 51风流for their digital transformation gain access to a range of benefits. 鈥淐ompanies can use our combined capabilities to leverage proven, scalable solutions built on modern architecture, improved delivery capacity and capability, and unlock inherent analytics capabilities, all driven by proven digital transformation architecture and methods.鈥�

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Nigeria goes to the polls in February to elect a new President, House of Representatives, and Senate, as well as new State Assemblies and Governors. More than 84 million of the country’s 211 million citizens are eligible to vote, but mobilising voters and getting them to the polls has proven challenging in recent years.

Voter turnout at Nigeria’s elections has declined over the past few election cycles, In some regions the voter turnout is as low as 8.3%, according to Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, driven in part by a general lack of young voters making their way to the poll.

Among the factors contributing to the low voter turnout are inadequate voter education, ineffective voter mobilisation, and low trust in state institutions. And despite the importance of elections to the broader democratic and nation-building effort, many countries in West Africa and across the continent are experiencing declining numbers of voter participation.

Boosting youth participation in voting process

About 60% of the Nigerian population consists of youth aged 24 or under.

Efforts driven by civil society have helped mobilise greater numbers of young voters. One recent partnership aimed at youth in Lagos and Abuja resulted in .

Such efforts are vital as younger, digital-native voters may prove an influential force through their greater use and adoption of digital tools. Sixty percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 25, and . Enhancing electoral systems to encourage greater involvement in voting and other democratic processes can only bode well for the continent’s democratic states.

Manual voting processes ripe for tech innovation

Encouragingly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has started making concerted efforts at introducing technology to protect and enhance the voting experience.

This includes the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) which provides a dual fingerprint and facial recognition accreditation process to ensure only genuine voters are able to cast their ballots. The introduction of the INEC Result Viewing portal will bring greater visibility and transparency to the polling results in real time come the 2023 elections.

However, there is still enormous scope for the role of technology to enhance the electoral process.

Greater use of e-voting could encourage voters in outlying areas to cast their ballot. At the moment, voters have to travel to physical voting stations, often great distances away from where they live. While not widely used in Nigeria’s electoral system, e-voting was trialed .

The use of e-voting could also spark greater numbers of young voters to participate in elections, especially since adoption of digital technologies remain highest among youth.

Greater digitisation of voting processes can also give rise to innovative new start-ups, as is the case with Lagos-based data company Stears. The company developed an elections tracker that displays results in near real-time in the hope of generating excitement for elections and beat voter apathy. At its first attempt in 2019, , with 99% of visitors accessing the site from their mobile phones.

Quick wins for tech鈥檚 role in elections

Several parts of present electoral processes are ready to benefit from the introduction of digital technologies.

Firstly, citizens residing in other countries or who may be traveling abroad during election cycles have a mountain to climb in order to cast their votes. By introducing e-voting functionality to out-of-country voters, the country may benefit from greater voter participation.

Secondly, current voting processes remain overwhelmingly manual and paper-based. Introducing greater efficiency during the voting process can improve the overall voting experience and may contribute to attracting larger numbers of voters. This is especially true in urban areas where technology adoption and mobile penetration remains highest.

Third, technology can play a central role in building trust in the voting process by eliminating error-prone processes with more transparent, digitised processes. This can build trust in elections by ensuring the integrity of electoral results.

Finally, considering Nigeria鈥檚 vast size and the disparate nature of many of its communities 鈥� especially in rural areas 鈥� the use of technology could enable marginalised communities to more easily participate in elections. This can encourage greater involvement in elections across the country and provide a welcome boost to the perceived fairness and integrity of election results.

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Following years of disruption, and hampered by a lack of legacy investment into technology, West African businesses now have an opportunity to leapfrog tech adoption and leverage the cloud for rapid growth and success.

Titilayo Adewumi, Regional Sales Director for West Africa at SAP, says: “Companies across the region are adopting cloud to achieve greater scalability, improve their data and analytics capabilities, drive innovation and build greater resilience. A huge part of our success in supporting the region’s digital transformation efforts is our close collaboration with expert partners that continuously find new ways to innovate.”

Digitalisation a huge opportunity

The World Bank recently noted that , highlighting its role in alleviating poverty and boosting shared prosperity in West Africa.

In light of this, cloud technologies offer tremendous benefits to organisations in the region. These include lowering the total cost of ownership of technology capabilities, achieving faster deployment cycles, automating manual processes to boost efficiency, enabling quicker adoption of emerging technologies, and creating opportunities for organisations to leverage industry best practices to standardise their business processes.

Adewumi singles out the partnership with global consulting firm PwC as a major driver of digital transformation success in the region. “PwC’s innovative approach to solving business problems through technology combined with keen business insight has helped organisations across the region become more successful and build capabilities fit-for-purpose in the highly competitive digital economy. From enabling remote work and driving adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning to gain insight into key business areas, to meeting the demand for improved user experiences, SAP’s partnership with PwC is delivering game-changing benefits to innovative companies throughout the region.”

PwC is an 51风流Platinum member with years of experience implementing SAP’s solutions and co-innovating on new ways to apply technology to solve key business challenges. The company’s unique value equation combines deep sector experience and business-led perspective with SAP’s technology innovation to help businesses accelerate growth and sustain value through user-centric transformation.

Abimbola Taiwo, Director: Tech Advisory & ERP Lead at PwC Nigeria, adds: “Our partnership with 51风流has unlocked significant value to PwC customers. By supporting West African organisations for the future of work through cloud technology, we help them enable secure remote and hybrid work. Innovation and collaboration are further driven through the replacement of disparate IT systems with one consolidated system that serves as a single source of truth, offering real-time visibility over key business functions.”

Driving cloud adoption, innovation

PwC recently introduced its New Equation global strategy that focuses on two interconnected organisational needs: building trust across the broad range of areas that are important to stakeholders, and delivering sustained outcomes in an operating environment where the risk of disruption is greater than ever before.

“Part of our purpose as a company is to solve important societal problems,” says Taiwo. “Helping businesses succeed and economies thrive is a fundamental part of achieving this purpose. Cloud technology provides a digital platform that enables companies to innovate at speed and scale while delivering accurate insights in real time to improve decision-making. For example, a leading conglomerate in Nigeria is currently implementing 51风流SuccessFactors to enhance its human capital management capabilities, while a large mining company in Ghana is leveraging Rise with 51风流to fast-track their deployment of the market-leading 51风流S/4HANA platform.”

Taiwo says there are plans to work even closer with 51风流over the coming years. “The partnership with 51风流is a strategic alliance that helps us achieve one of our six focus areas for Africa, namely Digitisation and Technology. PwC has been positioned as a market leader and trusted advisor in the digital transformation space through our work guiding clients on their journey to become intelligent, data-driven enterprises, gleaned from years of experience powered by SAP’s technology.”

Adewumi adds: 鈥�51风流is a partner-led organisation that works closely with the innovators, experts, and market leaders to ensure African enterprises have the technology, business insight and support they need to bring their intelligent enterprise ambitions to life. We look forward to deepening our partnership with PwC and being central role-players in the continued digitalisation of organisations across the West African region.鈥�

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“As a business we have always believed that building new capabilities is integral to our success,” says Sandeep Parasramka, CFO 鈥� Consumer Goods (Africa) at Tolaram. “As we eye a period of expansion and growth in our key markets, we wanted to ensure we had the technology and systems in place that would enable us to scale while also bringing our business processes to global best practice standards.”

Tolaram is a private enterprise founded in 1948 in Singapore. Today, it operates several businesses and manufacturing facilities in South-East Asia and Africa, focusing on three key business verticals: Consumer Goods, Fintech, and Infrastructure & Industrials. Among Tolaram’s businesses are Dufil, a joint venture with Indofood and Kellogg Company; TG Arla, a joint venture with Danish dairy company Arla Foods; Kellogg Tolaram and Multipro, both joint ventures with Kellogg Company, and Colgate Palmolive Tolaram, a joint venture with Colgate Palmolive. Tolaram also has a strategic partnership with Kimberly-Clark in Nigeria.

These businesses have helped Tolaram build a pan-African footprint and become a leading consumer goods player in Africa.聽 In fact, Tolaram is the largest manufacturer and distributor of Instant Noodles in Africa, and the largest packaged food company in Nigeria.

“Our business was dependent on an on-premise enterprise resource planning solution for the past 15 years, but it could no longer meet our future business needs,” says Parasramka. “We sought a solution that could enhance our analytics capabilities, generate insights across our various operations, and scale as our business grows. We chose 51风流S/4HANA as the leading cloud ERP solution on the market, and opted for an Azure deployment to meet our cloud ambitions. We believe this is the first 51风流S/4HANA go-live on Azure in Ghana.”

Ghana pilot a test for broader transformation effort

Tolaram operates 25 manufacturing facilities across Africa, producing consumer goods in line with established joint ventures with the likes of Kellogg’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Indofood from Indonesia and Danish dairy firm Arla in addition to other wholly owned businesses across Africa.

“We plan to move our businesses across all verticals to the new 51风流system in a phased approach,” explains Parasramka. “However, we chose to first pilot the migration in Ghana before moving to the larger business units in Nigeria and elsewhere.”

Phase One of the implementation focused on the Dufil and Multipro market units in Ghana, with a project kick-off in December 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. “The lockdown restrictions created challenges, but we were ably supported by expert 51风流implementation partners Infocus Technologies as well as pool of in-house resources that we have built over a period of time and continue to focus on,” says Parasramka.

Almost all 51风流S/4HANA modules were deployed as part of the implementation, including financial planning and analysis, procurement and sourcing, HR and payroll, manufacturing, and enterprise asset management. “For us it’s a total transformation of our business processes,” says Parasramka. “By standardising our business processes across our markets and business units, we can generate more accurate and relevant insights into the performance of the entire business, make smarter decisions, and reduce reliance on Excel spreadsheets and other standalone applications for more accurate data capturing and analysis.”

Challenges and key learnings point the way

Parasramka cites challenges with getting people on the ground during the implementation, since a significant part of the project took place during the strict lockdowns imposed to control the spread of COVID-19.

“One key learning during this phase is that training and change management would be essential to the success of the broader digital transformation effort. Based on learnings from our initial project, we have increased training time by two to two-and-a-half times to ensure users are sufficiently comfortable with the new systems.”

Tolaram recognises the transformational impact of 51风流S/4HANA and change management remains a core focus for the implementation team and will be a determining factor in how easily the business adopts new tools and processes. 鈥淒espite the business having used the same ERP for 15 years, users could pick up the new system pretty quickly, which is hugely encouraging for the next phases of our transformation project.鈥�

Two more rollouts are planned for Phase One in 2023, including Dufil Nigeria and Multipro Nigeria following soon after. 鈥淲e also have implementations planned for other Nigeria-based business units in 2024, and will then focus on our business units in other regions, specifically Egypt and South Africa, with a planned go-live in 2025.鈥�

Commenting on the implementation, Titilayo Adewumi, Regional Sales Director for West Africa at SAP, says: 鈥淭he best run companies have the technology and processes to produce real-time insights into every aspect of the business to guide decision-making and process efficiency. With a successful first phase now well underway and a comprehensive implementation plan for the next few years, Tolaram is perfectly positioned to build intelligent enterprise capabilities that will enhance its competitiveness, enable its growth and support its success for years to come.鈥�

The post Tolaram Scales to New Heights with Business Transformation Supported by SAP appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

She has over 10 years of experience working in Information Technology, Public Health, Financial Services and Telecommunications industries in both Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Nigeria.

Titilayo is passionate about advocating for Women鈥檚 Leadership and Growth.

In this episode of What’s Next, Adewumi talks about SAP’s operations in West Africa. She explains the type of customers and industries that 51风流services across West Africa and discusses the relevancy of cloud in West Africa.

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The post What’s Next – SAP’s Titilayo Adewumi Discusses SAP’s Operations in West Africa appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.