Expert speaks on consequences of digital revolution

Founder and CEO of the Computer Warehouse Group, who is also an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), at the Columbia Business School, New York, Mr. Austin Okere, recently presented a paper at an event for thought leaders in Stockholm, Sweden organized by the Economist Group, tagged Digital Horizons.

Over 150 leading innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, futurists and policy makers gathered at the event to discuss the digital future, a one-day summit where conventional thinking was challenged, critical visions, tools and insights were shared and fresh ideas generated around people, prosperity and power.

Okere’s paper focused on the consequences of the digital revolution from an African perspective, drawing attention to the shifting opportunities from the erstwhile prosperous Northern hemisphere countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, U.K. and North America to Southern Hemisphere regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, China, India, Brazil and Australia.

He said, “Returns on foreign direct investments (FDI) into Sub–Saharan Africa were among the highest in the world due to the opportunities for growth and investment, and also as a result of the large and youthful population, projected to expand consumer expenditure to $1tr by 2020, coupled with the ample natural resources in the region.

Although digitalisation had already transformed our lives, he said a new wave of innovation was coming that would reshape the way we live, work and consume, redefining social systems, industrial competitiveness and pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible.”

He cautioned that Africa’s youthful population could either bring a democratic dividend or become a source of social unrest depending on how much policy and execution is exerted towards channelling the energies of the populace into productive entrepreneurship.

He faulted the erstwhile prejudices held against Sub-Saharan Africa such as being unprofitable, too complex and risky and difficult to tap into; citing examples of successful companies and how they have shattered these preconceived misconceptions, dealt with obstacles and created inventive business models, and taken advantage of technology to leapfrog what could in the past have been considered significant barriers.

He pointed at companies such as African telecoms giant MTN, the Dangote Manufacturing conglomerate and his own Computer Warehouse Group, rapidly growing to become foremost Pan African Powerhouses.

The main conference which was held at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), one of Scandinavia’s oldest and largest institutions of higher education founded in 1827, was chaired by Jan Piotrowski, Online Science and Technology editor at the Economist.

The event was attended by Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, who provided insights on governments’ perspectives on wide a range of issues from cyber security to job creation.

Other speakers included Nicklas Lundblad, Director of Policy at Google, Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Technology Officer at Ericsson, Scott Kirtkpatrick, head of the School of Computer Science and Engineering at The Hebrew university of Jerusalem and Pekka Mattila, Managing Director of Aalto University Executive Education.

It would be recalled that Mr. Okere was a also speaker at the Nigeria Summit 2013 on enabling and implementing transformation, organised by the Economist Group on March 19th and 20th at the Eko Expo Centre, Lagos.