10 Dec 2023

For Africa to be at par with the rest of the world, there has to be a paradigm shift towards embracing and investing in technology.

And for such to happen, technology, science, research and innovation should be inculcated into the traditional education.

This was expressed by panelists at the fifth Kusi Ideas Festival in Gaborone, who among others called on policy makers and implementers to pause and rethink the involvement of youth in the continent’s technology path.

“We have to really teach them to be creative thinkers.

And also, when you look at Africa, a lot of young people do not have jobs,” said Kenya based Nyonga Africa founder, Ms Mary Nyaruai.

She said the joblessness that had taken a toll of the continent could be averted through up-skilling youth on technology and getting them to be creative thinkers.

The continent should start having research for commercialisation programmes, many African researchers have innovative ideas but lack funds and support to implement, Ms Nyaruai said.

As of now, the continent produces two per cent of world research output and spends around one per cent of its GDP on research.

The International Finance Corporation has projected that around 230 million jobs in Africa will require digital skills by 2030.

These, Ms Nyaruai said were among difficulties facing the continent and further stated that Kenya had an inspiring story on innovation and financial technology that others could replicate and strength their innovation ecosystems.

She said Kenya had a 10-year Innovation Master Plan and had managed to lure big innovation companies into the country.

Also, she said the country had an Innovation Agency that looked for researchers for commercialising their ideas.

Botswana based company, Brastorne, chief executive officer and co-founder, Mr Martin Stimela said there was need to revamp the education sector for innovation.

“If we can really fund education for innovation, that is where we can be able to see Africa becoming more innovative,” he said and added that changing the education structure would change how people did certain things because education was supposed to put people into industries.

“With technology, I think you can almost be a part of the world stage,” he stated.

Mr Stimela however, said the main challenge facing Africa was tied to political regimes as policy makers came up with policies and programmes to appease electorate, lacking foresight beyond their political terms.

He said there was a need to engage youth when crafting policies as they made the bulk of Africa’s population.

“The best investment strategy is to spend time with the young people,” he said.

He said difficult and discriminatory regulations set by policy makers, which made it difficult for local entrepreneurs to operate and expand, added to the challenges faced by Africa hence the need to rethink how standards and regulations were impacting African businesses.

The Kusi Ideas Festival which was held on Thursday and Friday was themed; Africa’s Agenda 2063, Making the Dream Come True. ENDS