What is the fourth industrial revolution? The first industrial revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production. The second used electric power to create mass production. The third used electronics and information technology to automate production. The fourth is now building on the third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is a fusion of technologies combining elements of physical, digital and biological areas. We live in interesting times indeed.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year the 26ht World Economic Forum was held in Kigali. Attended by government leaders, business executives, academics, and civil society and media representatives. One of the main focuses of this meeting was Africa\u2019s digital transformation in this fourth industrial revolution. A member of the WEF committee suggests that the Fourth Industrial Revolution presents a unique opportunity to build stronger, fairer, more prosperous societies, but this can only be achieved through strong institutions, greater regional integration and investment in key areas such as infrastructure, education and industries. There is vast scope for public-private cooperation to help realise these goals. Advantages to Africa are obvious. Digital technology is knowledge and people driven. It does not require a huge industrial complex to manufacture it. However, over the years, it has become clear that individual countries cannot realise their development goals on their own. Issues on reliable infrastructure and lawlessness (and terrorist activity) raise doubts about maximising opportunity in this area.<\/p>\n
Africa needs a concerted effort from all industry players and governments in order to avoid losing out to other regions as digitally transformed societies become the norm worldwide. Get Schoynbee, a speaker at the WEF strongly called for this coordinated action, advising that there would be dire consequences if Africa did not capitalise on this revolution \u2013 especially cloud computing. He advises that the 2-3 years are essential for action \u2013 otherwise we will be left out of the opportunities offered by this revolution.<\/p>\n
Schoonbee made suggestions for how an African response should be devised in the interest of achieving long term sustainability of many of the African companies. \u201cWe can\u2019t stop the digital transformation era. We can only try to steer it to our benefit. Pure regulation is not the answer because the digital economy is a global economy and if you put up the borders it will just make us uncompetitive. We will need to make sure that we are good enough from a price point, security and functionality perspective in cloud.\u201d Partnerships in Africa and a non-competitive environment on basic cloud platforms will keep our data in the country and allow us to take advantage of infrastructure and employment opportunities \u2013 whilst allowing skills building within the continent.<\/p>\n
Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda at the WEF expanded on how Africa can use the fourth industrial revolution to deliver economic growth and social prosperity. \u201cThe fourth industrial revolution builds on previous ones which largely passed Africa by. As a result, our continent barely registers in global; value chains. Africa can only claim its place at the table by earning it. Leapfrogging has its limits and we must remain mindful of the gaps that holds us back and be able to address them. Africa should not still be playing catch up by the time the fifth industrial revolution comes around. If we can use this time together to look for ways to harness the fourth industrial revolution for everyone\u2019s benefit based on the inherent dignity and value of each person, then we really will have accomplished something useful\u201d.<\/p>\n
Governments must partner with the private sector to provide the right enabling environment for this revolution. This revolution will be entrepreneur led and as such \u2013 the youth of this country need to be given the opportunities to maximise innovation.<\/p>\n
The opportunity for Africa to leapfrog industrialised countries has never been higher at this time. Now is the time for enlightened and far sighted politicians, businessmen and entrepreneurs to stand up and be counted, to ensure we stay ahead of the game in this dynamic and exciting age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is the fourth industrial revolution? The first industrial revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production. The second used electric power to create mass production. The third used electronics and information technology to automate production. The fourth is now building on the third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24933,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24929\/revisions\/24933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}