Africa must prioritise digital technology to be competitive, says Bosun Tijani

Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, says Africa must prioritise the use of digital technology to be competitive and leapfrog development.

Tijani spoke in an interview with CNBC Africa on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

The minister said countries in Africa, like Nigeria, are applying technology across key sectors of the economy to revolutionise how people live and do business.

“The sort of digital technologies that are truly making digital innovations possible today are what is responsible for the digital revolution,” Tijani said.

“For any economy to leapfrog development, to provide for its people, to be competitive, you must prioritise digital technology. So, the digital economy is our economy. And the belief is that it gives Africa the opportunity, the opportunity for countries like Nigeria to truly diversify.

“We have the agriculture sector and our current president is very aggressive and bullish about freely raising the level of productivity there. He wants us to cultivate half a million acres of land in Nigeria, but the point is, we’re not going to cultivate that the old way and get anything productive. We must apply digital technology.

“It’s going to be the same in education. To fix the quality of education on the continent in countries like Nigeria, to raise the level of learning outcomes we must reimagine how we use technology.

“How can we use it to support the teachers to be able to deliver better education to the learners? How can we use it to support the learners for remediation when they are home, for instance? That’s the kind of thing technologies can do.

“So, I think if you look at it from that aspect, you do understand that we have a significant opportunity on our hands and Africa to truly change things once and for all.”

‘AFRICA LATE TO THE GAME OF AI’

Speaking further on digital innovations in Africa, Tijani said “we’re somewhat late to the game” and had not been “part of investing in the scientific breakthrough that led to artificial intelligence (AI)”.

However, he said efforts should be put in place to understand the technology, have the right governance structure in place, and also open for talents to apply the technology to solve significant problems in sight.

“One thing that countries like Nigeria don’t lack is talent, a very youthful population, most of whom are digital natives,” he added.

“They’re already building solutions and artificial intelligence. So as governments, what we’re doing is reimagining AI strategy as a country. So, we’re putting a lot of people together to help us reimagine what our strategy should look like.

“Not only from a governance point of view but also saying what do we need to do to ensure that artificial intelligence can be applied in public health?

“Because it’s not going to be enough for the private sector, for the startups to build the solution if the government truly doesn’t have the ecosystem to back it or make it work for everyone at scale.”

Tijani also said the federal government is conscious of the risk, safety, and application of AI.

“What we’ve been doing is understanding that governing AI, protecting society from it, is not something you can do just from a singular national point of view because you can come up with your policy but the development is global, ” he added.

“We’re also now investing in research. We’re mostly applying research. What are ways in which we should be applying this technology?

“So, you will see more investment and intention from the Nigerian government to raise the level of application of AI but also raise the understanding across borders.”

Tijani said the ministry is “keeping an eye on the level of application and ensuring that we’re not overregulating to the point where we kill innovation and application of artificial intelligence for our good”.

He said there is a need for the mainstreaming of the knowledge of AI in government, adding that it is not enough for his ministry to have an understanding of it but the entire government should know about it.