For Africa Investment into Digital Infrastructure Is Inevitable - Microsoft

For Africa to not just survive the current pandemic, but to thrive, investment into digital infrastructure is inevitable, according to Ryno Rijnsburger, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft 4Africa.

“While digital transformation is certainly not a new discussion, the Covid-19 pandemic has abruptly accelerated the need for digital adoption. There’s an urgent need to invest in connecting communities and improving service delivery to citizens throughout Africa,” he wrote in a piece on “Public-private partnerships hold the key to future development.”

However, governments across Africa, and indeed globally, have budgetary restraints that have been exacerbated by the current pandemic, and digitization requires significant investments to modernize the government sector and beyond, Rijnsburger underlined, adding that Public-private partnerships (PPP) will play a critical role in accelerating digital transformation.

“Africa’s recovery must be digitally driven – the digital economy is the recipe for job creation, spurring innovation, boosting economic growth and supporting long-term competitiveness in the global digital economy”, he said.

According to Rijnsburger, Morocco is one such country that has harnessed the power of PPPs to drive digital transformation. “Its Morocco 2020 Digital Strategy places the development of eGovernment services as a top priority,” he explained, stressing that “Microsoft 4Afrika has backed the development of this eGovernment solution in Morocco through a partnership with Algo Consulting to develop the Wraqi platform, which uses IoT, biometrics and blockchain to digitize administrative services, document certification and notarization.”

Public-private partnerships can form the cornerstone of a successful move to digitization, and are an effective strategy for bringing together the resources and know-how needed to deliver on digital transformation goals, Rijnsburger concluded.