Review of "Digital Economy for Africa Fire-side Conversation"

Last week, the Word Bank Group organized a fire-side conversation with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and African investor and philanthropist Tony Elemelu. Led by WBG President, Jim Young Kim, the conversation sought to identify the role of technologies in Africa’s development and explore Africa’s position in the digital economy. Jeff Weiner emphasized the importance of data while Tony Elemelu called attention to structures that need to be available. Both, however, saw a need to maintain and promote the human element in this tech frenzy.

In answering a question on the effects of technology on Africa, Jeff Weiner opined that there would be both positive and negative effects on the continent. However, the access to data gives us unprecedented ability to understand our problems. His optimistic view is in part due to LinkedIn’s mission to harness its data to provide economic opportunity to all economically active people around the world. He mentioned that while technology may replace some jobs, we could use LinkedIn’s “Economic graphs” to identify skills gaps, curriculum gaps, and so much more that can help people, universities, and governments plan and better position themselves for economic opportunity.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Tony Elemelu spoke to the barriers that African entrepreneurs face on the continent. He first acknowledged that there are many determined, energetic, and intelligent people looking to make a difference through their ventures. He then discussed the importance of critical infrastructure like electricity, internet access, and mobile telephony. Describing an enabling environment as one that incentivized investors and protected the Intellectual Property of entrepreneurs, he called on governments to strive to create this. Perhaps, it was the glaring statistics that caught my attention; “that about 60% of the working population is under 30 years, and more than half of work on the continent is in the informal sector”.

When Tony Elemelu talked about passion and Jeff Weiner followed up with compassion, technology analysts like myself couldn’t help but be impressed. This was in response to the skills that young people should equip themselves with to be active participants in a fully burgeoning digital economy. Speaking from experience in the entrepreneurial space, Tony Elemelu described passion as pivotal. Jeff Weiner stressed the importance of compassion, and along with it, called attention to critical reasoning, collaboration, creative thinking and basic digital literacy.

During the conversation, Tony Elemelu described the decoupling of human consciousness from intelligence (a phenomenon I would describe as “external virtual intelligence”) and what that meant for the future of the world. Jeff Weiner identified the central role that people still play in that process, hinting at the importance of ethics and technology assessment. “Until then”, describing a potential singularity, “we are in charge”, he concluded. There was also talk of “leapfrogging”, a term I discuss elsewhere. There seemed to be an accepted notion that digital development was the new developmental model; or, at least, a precursor to a new developmental model. Jim Young pointed out that many governments want to follow the Korean path to development, placing emphasis on growing from agricultural to light to heavy industries. He was however skeptical that it wasn’t a universal model, and rightly so.

Tony Elemelu hinted at “purpose in development”, a pointer to the more fundamental question of what development means in, to, and for Africa. This, I reckon, is the starting point for a cohesive and effective discussion on development. If over half of the continent’s workforce is in the informal sector, how differently should we be positioning our development agenda? How are we going to monitor our development? This, I would argue, is why we need new models borne out of the African experience.

It was an insightful conversation, raising very important issues concerning how Africa could participate actively in the digital economy. The importance of broadband connectivity was stressed, as well as an enabling environment for a digital ecosystem. Data continues to remain king in this digital era, possessing the power to help us understand our problems. Great props to the World Bank Group for organizing this, and to Tony Elemelu and Jeff Weiner for sharing their insights. Conversations like these fuel sparks in the hearts and minds of young innovators around the world and we need more of them.

The event was streamed live here.