CIO Club Africa Inaugurates Platform to Boost National Economic Growth Through Digitalisation

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Left to Right: Obinna Ukonu, ELC President, the CIO Club Africa, Country DTP Director Nigeria Bottling Company, Olayinka Oni, Board of Trustees Chairman, the CIO Club Africa, Chief Digital Officer Sterling Bank, Abiola Laseinde, CEO Edniesal Consulting Limited, Founder the CIO Awards & the CIO Club Africa, Ade Shonubi, Keynote Speaker, Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Oluwakayode Adigun, Chairman Edniesal Consulting Limited.

Over the years, information and communication technologies have been recognised as the engine for economic growth. This is as they are increasingly covering various spheres of the economy, boosting economic development as well as sustaining growth. 

Today, the developed world has embraced digitalisation that is fundamentally changing their economy and the society, propelling entrepreneurial innovation, productivity, and regional economic growth.

It is to intensify its economy status through digitalisation that the CIO Club Africa in partnership with Edniesal Consulting limited launched its inaugural summit for strategic communication and networking among critical stakeholders within the digital transformation ecosystem, IT companies, and technology hubs.

The summit was designed for high-profile government personnel, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), Chief Data Officers (CDOs), Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) including managing directors, country managers, and chief executive officers in the private sector. 

Held at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island area of Lagos State on the theme, “The Role of Digitalisation in Transforming the Economy”, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Ade Shonubi, spoke on the need for practitioners in the tech space to be more impactful on people rather than just on the use of technology.

“We need to contribute to output on the country as well as ways to engage people amd the youth in Nigeria to be productive in the country,” he emphasised. 

While recalling that one of the areas Nigeria has excelled the most that attracted accolades is the payment system, he described it as one of the best in the world. 

“All the technology around it,” he continued “was built in Nigeria by Nigerians. So we do have the capacity to do these things. It’s an excuse to always say we are waiting for someone to put the infrastructure in place. Everywhere we have basic infrastructure that we can improve upon to make things better if real time payment – Nigeria was the first country in the world to have real time payment long before America. Egypt only had last month or two months ago. We have had for about six/seven years. So what’s impossible?” says Shonubi.

For the CBN deputy governor, he harped on the importance of identifying the investment, having infrastructure that’s basic and then allowing the people to build around it. According to Shonubi, “When we look at the curriculum of an institution, the conversation should be driven by the private sector. The reason is when those students come out,  they’ll go into the private sector largely. 

“Yes, the government might employ one or two of them but it’s the private sector. But we are not having that conversation so that we have education that is fit for purpose.” He further bemoaned that currently the nation has education that is fit for numbers. When you interview graduates straight out of university with very good degrees, they can’t string together basic principles. 

Left to Right:  Adewale Laseinde, Board of Trustees Member, the CIO Club Africa, Olufemi Sojinrin, keynote speaker 2, the CIO of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, representative of Premier Oiwoh, MD  & CEO of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, industry partner to the CIO Club Africa Summit

He, therefore, regretted that while this gap doesn’t mean the graduates can’t be good people, he admitted, “We have let them down in that we’ve not prepared them for the real world they are going into and like I highlighted the world is changing. There are certain skills today we are making such a fuss about that are going to be irrelevant in four to five years time.”

He further listed 3D printing, which he claimed would replace spare parts down the road. He stressed, “I’ll download a code, put it on my impact and print the spare part I need for my car. Do we know how to even conceptualise what 3D printing is? Most folks don’t know. We are not thinking about it. So we need to be forward looking while also satisfying the needs of the employers of today which is largely the private sector”.

On intervention to help the journey of digitalisation, Shonubi recounted that not long ago the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, revealed that they were encouraging universities and institutions to compete among themselves. They have put aside grants not even loans, “pure clean money” to universities who came up with projects that added value and were locally sourced.

While that has been running for over two years now, the prizes for the schools range from N50m to N100m. He added that this intervention allows students to come together as individuals or a team to come up with the project. “We set up a governing council made of private sector people that would evaluate how well they’re doing and decide who was worthy of it. So that was out in place to encourage universities.”

With this deliberate project to ramp-up tech participation among students, Shonubi described the CIO Africa summit as paramount in many organisations. “When you start talking about technology the person they look to is usually the CIO. You go to board meetings, the person they turn to for advice is the CIO. 

“If the CIOs come together and say this is what we want to do to have an impact; we have the ability to influence institutions so that’s why coming together here, jointly agreeing on things we want to do is very good. 

“It’s also more important where we have it as Africa because we have common problems and we can’t be running around trying to solve a problem in Nigeria that our neighbours in Cameroon may already be solving. So that’s why the Africa summit is more exciting and collaborative.” He, therefore, conceded that there are a lot of opportunities in Africa. “I think we can drive the realisation of some of them.”

Addressing newsmen at the function, the Founder of CIO Club Africa and CEO Edniesal Consulting Ltd, Mrs. Abiola Laseinde, noted that the summit is all about impact. She hinted, “The vision of the CIO club Africa is to help connect all the critical stakeholders within the digital transformation ecosystem together so that we can discuss the side and take definitive actions on the digital transformation of Africa.”

Laseinde is, however, optimistic that Africa has the potential to galvanise all the people making the private sector work to also contribute their quote towards national development. 

“So the CIO club Africa is a platform and association of all these critical stakeholders behind digital transformation. Just make an impact and ensure there’s a positive narrative around our national continental African development,” she expressed.

Benefits of digitalisation of the economy, according to the convener, will take Africa out of the label of an emerging economy, adding that the greatest lessons they have learned is the COVID-19 disruption. “We were able to quickly pivot from physical working. So many things that were done manually were moved into digitalisation and we noticed we didn’t have to end our work. The commercial means of survival for most companies were sustained because of the effect and impact of digitalisation.”

If COVID-19 could push the nation to think outside the box – “We didn’t only come out of the box, we actually burnt the box so we don’t have to go back there – think about what the same impetus or zeal will do to the national economy agenda. That is digitalisation for you; it moves you from that label “emerging economy” to a sustainable one. 

It moves you to be able to compete favourably within the committee of nations that are there and still improving. More than ever, it positions your future generations for the future of work because so many things we do now will become irrelevant when we hit the 4th industrial revolution.” Hence, she charged the nation on the need to be prepared and get into that future.

While the summit will be held annually with an aim to be a pan-African event, the CIO Club Africa is established on strategic pillars including empowerment, advocacy as two of its biggest pillars. “We have a framework about how we want to engage with the environment, with those in  charge of governance, those who will fund the change we want to see (the private sector).”

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