Emma Okonji
The Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Houlin Zhao has called on
African governments to invest more in technology startups who are mainly
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in order to fast-track Africa’s
digital transformation.
Zhao, who made the call during the
closing press conference at the just concluded ITU Telecoms World 2018,
which held in Durban, South Africa, said ITU had long realised the
importance of SMEs, even though they are not financially strong at their
early stage of development, and has decided to shift focus to SMEs,
which he said, remained strong drivers of digital revolution of a
nation, if given the appropriate government support.
He therefore, called on African
governments to consider investing more in SMEs to enable them get the
necessary support that would propel them into creating disruptive
solutions that would address specific organisational, individual and
national issues.
“Since the inception of ITU in 1865 in
Europe, which is over 153 years ago, the focus of ITU, which is the
United Nation’s specialised agency for information and communications
technology (ICT) development, has not been on SMEs, but this year, we
decided to shift our focus on SMEs, which are mainly young people that
are using technology to not only disrupt existing ways of doing
businesses, but to also create solutions that address specific
challenges,” Zhao said.
According to him, “although SMEs are not
economically strong at their formative stages, but they can turn out to
be the drivers of economies, because they are digital natives that
understand technology faster.”
He equally called on global leaders to give exposure to their SMEs by sponsoring them to ITU conferences where they will have opportunities to showcase their solutions to the entire world.
He equally called on global leaders to give exposure to their SMEs by sponsoring them to ITU conferences where they will have opportunities to showcase their solutions to the entire world.
The South African Minister of
Communications and Postal Services, Mr. Cyprain Cwelle, who was also at
the ITU closing press conference, said the South African government had
partnered SMEs to further expose them and grow their businesses to
profitability. According to him, “South Africa’s
digital transformation is hinged on
three pillars: Women, Youths and SMEs and we will continue to support
SMEs, the same way we are supporting the youths and women in the
society.”
“In South Africa, we have developed
Centre for ICT Development, which is designed to support technology
growth among startups and SMEs,” Cwelle said.
Chairman, Board of Commissioners,
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye said
the need to support SMEs growth was imperative, hence Nigeria sponsored
six SMEs startups to this year’s ITU Telecoms World conference, in
order to give them international exposure.
“Nigeria will do everything possible to
be part of the fourth revolution, which is about knowledge economy,
having missed out in the first, second and third revolutions,” Durojaiye
said.
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