BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
The world is, once again, at the dawn of the next technological change. Technology is creating hundreds of new business capabilities, leaving last-century business design unprofitable and unsustainable.
In fact, countries are at different stages; and have different opportunities available to them in this new paradigm. A critical first step is to ensure the approach selected for digital transformation is treated as a means to a country’s national development vision and priorities.
For Ethiopia, a digital transformation strategy needs to be aligned with critical homegrown documents specifically with the 2019 Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda and the Ten-Year Development Plan (2020-2030) as well as with international commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Continental Digital Strategy. Ethiopia digital transformation strategy frames that technological change has been the primary driver of social development, productivity improvement and inclusive growth.
These guiding government documents aims to correct macroeconomic imbalances, address structural impediments to inclusive prosperity and highlight sectoral priorities – ultimately to develop an inclusive, knowledge-based and prosperous society. Agriculture, manufacturing, mining, information and communications technologies (ICTs), the creative industry and tourism are the selected sectors that government has prioritized for job creation, forex and exports, and inclusive growth.
As part of an effort to ensure national digital transformation, University of Gondar, College of Informatics and the Research and Technology Transfer had recently organized a two day national conference that deliberated ways to transform the digitalization across the education system and via.
President of the University, Dr. Asrat Atsedeweyn said that there are some challenges to overcome when it comes to digitalization. He expressed that achieving digital transformation is still challenging for the developing world and on average nearly 300 million Africans live more than 50 kilometers faraway from a fiber or cable broadband connection. There is also a digital skills gap and a shortage of well-trained or qualified human resource that African countries can use at national and continental levels. This is a huge problem in the 21st century.
On the occasion, discussions and deliberations was entertained, mainly, on the national conference on digital transformation for holistic and inclusive development, national PhD curriculum review workshop and a national workshop on online safety of Ethiopian female high school students.
Efforts to improve access to digital technologies have mainly focused on issues related to connectivity and infrastructure development. However, access still poses a challenge. For example, some areas may have connectivity, but large segments of the population, especially in lower socioeconomic and rural areas, may have limited or no access to digital devices or platforms, or they may not meet accessibility standards, and thus may not be equally accessible to all, especially to persons with disabilities.
Lack of digital knowledge and skills also constitutes a major barrier to effective usage. To enhance one’s livelihood and build resilience in the face of digital change, it is necessary for individuals to become digitally competent across many aspects of human development, which is critical to the achievement and sustainability of the SDGs.
The Ethiopian Herald approached Firew Bekele, a resident of Addis Ababa, to share his insight with regard to this same topic. As he stated, Ethiopia is far behind; but if consorted efforts put in place, it can catch up with. To attain this, the education system should revise its ways of dealing with digitalizing.
If the government exerts utmost effort and ensure that citizens can easily access and adopt the digital services, the return will be huge in many ways. The demand for human capital will increase. “In my view the core point is the political will of the incumbent and it should take the lion’s share to translate the effort to the ground.
He further noted that, digital transformation creates easy way to access available data of someone’s businesses, promote commercial competition and related issues. Implementing this technology efficiently enhances productivity, creates simplicity in product and services. It also allows open and smooth communication between and among different teams and departments.
It improves performance management and strengthens teamwork. Digital advancement leads to a better communication with the clients which helps in gaining their trust and ensure client satisfaction.
To meet the desired goals, however, consorted efforts should be exerted. Equally, the human development effort must also be intertwined with respective higher education institutions to equip the trainees with the necessary skills now more than ever before.
“I believe a strong digital workplace can revolutionize any business and can promote transparency. Due to this, it is high time to adapting quickly to digital technology as it is becoming crucial for the organizations to stay in the competition.” he opined.
Ethiopia has a potential market to digital transformation as the political willingness is growing across the board. Higher learning institutions should also frame how the human capital development should be managed as per the demand supply equations. As part the effort, awareness creation platforms should be organized to create informed community towards the digital transformation.
“We need to work together and adopt an inclusive approach – between the public and private sectors, and across industries, if we want to address the digital divide. As we know, many of those still offline communities are living in rural, remote areas where connectivity is difficult, often because of the terrain, but also because the return on investment in those areas is often poorer than the urban areas. We must find innovative approaches to change this equation,” he said.
It is well outlined in the digital Ethiopia 2025 national strategy efforts to transform the country’s national economy through four major pathway sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, IT-enabled services and the tourism.
The Ethiopian Herald April 9/2022
