Shoyinka Shodunke, chief information officer of MTN Nigeria, said this as he delivered the keynote on the digital economy forecast for 2026 at Tech Revolution Africa Conference 2.0 in Lagos, headlined by MTN. 

Speaking under the theme “The Big Bold Step,” Shodunke stressed that the fourth industrial revolution is the first moment in history where Africa can compete on equal terms, but only if it moves fast.

“The inputs today are data, and where’s the factory? The factory sits in the cloud,” he said.

During the first industrial revolution, the continent was absent. In the second, it supplied raw materials. In the third, it became a consumer of finished technology. Each delay came at a cost.

“We got punished for the first. Got punished for the second time. We got punished for the third,” he said. “But in the fourth, if we fail to act, we get punished again.”

What makes this era different, he explained, is that scale no longer depends on capital. With cloud services, access to talent from anywhere and locally generated data, the limitations are lower. Startups no longer need massive data centres or years of runway before launching products.

“You can subscribe to cloud services today at $50,” he said. “You don’t have to invest over $100,000 on compute power for you to be able to power your industry.”

Shodunke explained that the actual threat is not lack of technology but fear, fear of disrupting existing business models, revenue streams and comfortable ways of working. He warned that organisations clinging to legacy systems risk repeating Africa’s old mistakes.

“You cannot live with a legacy mindset, a fear of disruption, or with the comfort of mediocrity,” Shodunke further stated at the Tech Revolution Africa Conference 2.0. “Whatever is being built has to be built with a scale in mind, not mediocre.”

Using MTN as a case study, he described how the telecoms giant has had to intentionally disrupt itself, moving beyond voice and data into cloud services, fintech and intelligent platforms layered on top of its network infrastructure.

“History punished everyone who hesitated,” he warned. “So don’t really wait for the perfect time to come in, only take that big bold step.”

In closing, he stressed that the race has already started. Africa is not arriving late anymore, but hesitation could still leave it watching others disrupt.

“Revolution,” Shodunke said, “it punishes hesitations.”

In these necessary conversations, Führ said, it is vital that leadership teams do not lose sight of their organisation’s overall transformation objectives.

Ultimately, Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies are tools that should be considered as one part of the transformation journey and not all technological advances are necessarily useful for all businesses.

In her words: “Amidst the pace of technological change, it’s up to CFOs and other members of management to navigate how organisations should deploy funding for digital transformation to achieve the best possible return on investment.

“For mid-sized corporates especially, the challenge of balancing business requirements and aligning long-term organisational goals is compounded by the need to use resources as prudently as possible.

“Making sure that finance fits in with the rest of the digital transformation journey, has access to funding, the right skill set to assist with the change, all while ensuring the finance team is able to join on the journey is very important – and easier said than done.

“The aim shouldn’t be to transform simply for the sake of it, but to transform with specific, goal-orientated objectives in mind such as faster, more accurate and value adding reporting”.

Führ also hinted In a medium size corporate, there just isn’t room to implement the wrong tools because of the potential resource impact.

Continuing, Führ said “Change management will be important to ensure the effective adoption of technological changes. This is a great opportunity to partner with HR to ensure adoption within the team.

“Of course, many of the newest technologies that look set to make an even bigger impact on business and ways of working are still at an early stage but will evolve rapidly. Rather than seeing this scenario as a threat to job security, it should be viewed as an opportunity for leadership, strategic thinking, risk management thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, both in finance and the rest of the organisation, to really thrive.

“Adaptability and agility are key competencies as technology becomes entrenched in every aspect of business and organisations look for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. STEM education is the cornerstone of what will be required to navigate through Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

She highlighted: “Investing in tech education is something that I am particularly passionate about”.

Many CFOs are in the position to decide or influence the decision on where to spend socio-economic development funding.

“With Fourth Industrial Revolution gaining momentum, funding for education in these key areas should form part of all organisations’ socio-economic development investment agenda, and better still, a practical and long-term strategy to truly enabling digital transformation and 4IR”, Führ concluded.