Ghana said to have potential to be technology-driven economy in five years
Ghana, with proper investment in critical infrastructure, has the potential to become a technology-driven and digitised economy in the next five years, Mr Chris Larbi, West Africa Territory Manager, Cisco Meraki, has said.
He said while Ghana appeared to be a couple of years behind due to socio-economic impacts, there were indications that the country was going to be at the forefront of internet technology in the next five to 10 years.
Mr Larbi was speaking at a seminar for companies on Maximising Business Growth: Unleashing the Power of Cloud Platforms for Profitable Scaling.”
“We have so many opportunities and growth. If you just see tourism in Ghana since the year of return in 2020.
And how internet bandwidth is being used right now in this country and I do feel like we need to have the best internet connectivity because all the foreigners are coming here as their hub to build out across Africa,” he said
He said technology was helping to reshape how things were done such that people, for example, could now easily rectify wireless issues from the comfort of their homes when they previously had to go to the office.
“It means we allow companies to scale. Likewise, we’ve done with so many companies who have scored 500% in under five years. By having our deployments we’re able to keep people in jobs.”
“We need to be able to put ourselves ahead of the curve. And I do think Ghana is making adjustments. And I do think things are going to be happening where Cisco Meraki are bringing out new products and new product portfolios that help not only educate everyone to be able to use technology, but also allows people to scale and grow as much as possible,” Mr Larbi said.
He said the technology could be applied in different sectors, including oil and gas, Defence, financial institutions and hospitality, among others.
On Artificial Intelligence, Mr Larbi said it is the future and businesses needed to embrace it as it help them in rendering their tasks efficiently, adding that Meraki was already integrating AI in its platforms to facilitate work processes.
Mr Olusegun Enitan Dada, Managing Director IT HORIZONS, an African IT company, lauded the innovative digital transformation solutions that were currently being carried out by the Ghanaian government.
He said initiatives such as centralising the entire database system to ensure that from a central point any Ghanaian can be recognised could help the country grow as well as the Smart City project could help.
Mr Dada said there were a lot of potential in countries in Africa, including Ghana and IT Horozons was working its way to catch up with them.
He said COVID-19 had really helped to change the technology landscape not just in Africa, but also around the world.
” And you can also see that even from the various digital applications that has been rolled out every now and then that is helping to get things done easily and better.”
He said AI had always been there but was now more pronounced and would require everybody to also increase their knowledge.
Source: GNA