BY: Taiwo Adetiloye
One of the challenges faced by Africa as a Continent is the inability to control her currencies. This is because most monetary values in Africa are weak.
Thus, external variables such as foreign exchange rate, foreign trades, and high reliance on foreign-made goods and services do not make Africa continents to be at par with its equals.
Different African entrepreneurs like Akon are now trying to change the narratives by investing in Africa and thinking about how to help the continent ascend with even velocity. Thereby, enabling the continent to strive and compete with the rest of the world.
For instance, Akon is collaborating with different government agencies in Africa to enhance more investment in renewable energies by ensuring the project called “light up Africa“.
Akon has also been championing the “Year of Return” to encourage black Americans to come back home to Africa and invest. Thus, a new wave of reality is beginning to emerge in Africa. A continent once thought of as savage and primitive is now a recon of hope for many.
Two major keys ways to help shape Africa includes but not limited to:
- Crypto-currency
- Data Science Analytics
Interesting to note that Akon plans to create a cryptocurrency version, which is named Akoin. Having a currency that is not influenced by inflation or regulated in any way could help shape the way we manage our finance in Africa.
Data Science analytics will help the continent create accurate statistics of events, history, milestones, and help in proffering better solutions to huge problems facing the continent in public health, population estimation, voting and elections, and other areas including empirical, non-empirical research.
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Fortune 500 companies CEO such as the CEO of Twitter and major international multinationals companies are coming to take advantage of the immense opportunities in Africa. Just like any other business, most international multinationals are driven by profit margins and Return on Investment (ROI).
These imply that Africans need to get involved by acquiring substantial knowledge in cloud computing, ERP, database, Software programming, cryptocurrencies, data analytics, cybersecurity, machine learning, and other cutting edge technologies.
These will help Africa to be competitive globally and relevant in this information age. In addition, creating opportunities for her young populations.
Interesting to note that Knowledge of these technologies can be acquired without going to college or universities. Some individuals could complain of not having a laptop but with just the internet connection and smartphones, any willing Africans can change the story of their lives since a lot of free ebooks are available on google search. Youtube equally contains diverse IT contents, Conferences, webinars, and tutorials videos organized by leading IT companies and professionals.
Other paid available platform, that could be useful at a reasonable price. Such as Udacity, safari books online, Udemy, Edx, and Coursera. Edx and Coursera could offer a discount if you can show that you cannot afford the price of their courses.
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The good news is that most top IT corporations will hire anybody who can demonstrate sufficient knowledge. Even if one does not have a college or Bachelors’s degree.
*Taiwo T. Adetiloye can be reached via Twitter Handle: @TAdetiloye
