Addis Herald
  • Home
  • History
  • Africa
  • Travel
  • Music
  • Culture
  • Art

Culture

  • E00B6DCF-A08A-4223-8597-6734E7355A12Dagmawi Lalibela: The Newest Rock-hewn churches in Ethiopia
  • Iconic Ethiopian Foods You Have To Try   Read More: https://www.mashed.com/884367/iconic-ethiopian-foods-you-have-to-try-before-you-die/?utm_campaign=clipIconic Ethiopian Foods You Have To Try
  • 84B33505-D18B-4ECE-93DE-A07FC7B80E66The psychological pains of Ethiopian intellectuals
  • Hair salon in Addis AbabaHana Yilma Godine: Substance in Ethiopia
  • Or. 607The Ethiopian Emperor’s Manuscripts

Business

  • F2AF3430-E3DE-4268-B34F-BD909DAF120EUndeserved Wealth
  • 024951BA-2567-4745-85CA-1E7377D9CE64Chinese Construction Companies and Addis Ababa Booming Skyscrapers
  • 1BD88921-C209-419C-884E-908B9FBE7CECOrganized Crime Pours Cold Water On Coffee Exports
  • 07BDA6D0-DF40-41AD-9B5D-C8D723DD9D3AThe Battle for Semiconductor Supremacy ‘Chip Wars’
  • Coca-Cola-Beverages-Africa-opens-new-100m-Ethiopia-bottling-plant1Coca-Cola Beverages Africa Opens New $100m Bottling Plant in Ethiopia

Africa

  • 33F9F92C-3417-486D-AFA0-07790AA4A3E4Africa’s smaller cities are usually overlooked: They shouldn’t be
  • 608AA5EC-B99E-4124-84AB-040EEBB5C8A6Is The US Continue Destabilizing Ethiopia? Mystery Document Revealed That Showed US/Egypt Covert Operation Training TPLF In Uganda
  • 1D758AB5-D045-4AA0-8FD8-A2FB5D49C1ACIs Ethiopia and Africa as Whole Prefers a Strong Russia over the West?
  • E271ECC4-7700-4378-ACB7-35BA1E0D8451China Says It Wants To Play Bigger Role in Horn of Africa security
  • Africa-futureThe 20th Century Belongs to Europe’s, the 21st Century Is Asia’s, and the 22nd Century Will be Africa’s
29430031 - african business man working in virtual environment, studio shot
September 30, 2020

Covid-19 is Fast Tracking Digital Transformation in Africa

By Yeremi Bolton Akpan

In a meeting at Sharm El Sheik, Egypt last October, African ministers in charge of communication and information gathered to discuss the digital future of the continent. In the course of that gathering, the ministers adopted what has come to be called the 2019 Sharm El Sheik declaration. The declaration proposed a roadmap for transforming both the economy and societies of African countries. That document formally called the Digital Transformation Strategy, had a ten-year implementation timeline for innovation to seep to the corners of Africa.

But COVID-19, and the lockdown that came with it, had other plans. With rapid job losses across sectors and companies going out of business entirely, one of the earliest realisations has been that both businesses, employees and individuals have to adapt if they want to survive this pandemic.

Expectedly, consumers have changed their purchasing habits to match with their income in these times. Payments for cash and services are delayed as much as possible to create cash reserves. Businesses have also been forced to reconsider approaches in marketing and product distribution that would previously have taken years of strategy and market tests to implement.

While this has had grave connotations for the startup scene in Africa as well as on the fragile African economy, it does seem that the pandemic is leapfrogging an unlikely sector – e-health.

E-health to the rescue

As a result of fear of exposure that may result from visiting medical facilities, many African patients are turning to online channels to get medical attention for non-critical health crises. Both online pharmacies and online consultation services are noticing a spike in patronage across the continent. While it is still debatable whether these gains can be sustained post-COVID-19, in the short-term, the sector is gaining customers in droves and players are rising to the challenging.

E-health startups across Africa are rising to the challenge to prove that they have what it takes to meet the demands of the times. Healthcare startups across the continent are rapidly adjusting their models or starting completely new services, such as myPaddi in Nigeria, OuiCare in Cameroon, Redbird in Ghana and Ilara health in Kenya.

The Chief Executive Officer of Redbird, Patric Beattie, looks at the COVID-19 pandemic from the point of view of a test posed to health companies on whether they understand the sector well enough to know what their customers need, and whether they have enough agility to adapt to the rapidly changing needs from consumers.

However, he remains optimistic that they have shown resilience.

To him, Africa had the good fortune to be the last frontier in the global march of COVID-19. As such, players had the opportunity to observe what was happening in other countries and respond accordingly.

Responding to a media enquiry, Sheraan Amod, founder and CEO of South African based online healthcare platform RecoMed, says that the sector has moved forward by 5-10 years in just a few weeks. However, he expressed hope that the forced changes in behaviour that had led to this surge in e-health service usage would last after the pandemic.

The impact on the e-Health sector is a microcosm of how online businesses across Africa are rising to the challenge posed by the pandemic. As is the case globally, implementation of new ideas are being fast-tracked, catching up with the speed at which consumer habits are forced to change.

Dropping cash for mobile transfers

Another example of deepening digitalisation is seen in the mobile money payments sector. In Rwanda, mobile money transactions rose five-folds during the lockdown, based on data collected by the country’s telecom regulator and analysed by Cenfri, a South African think-tank. While the pandemic played a significant role in that spike in mobile money usage in the country, it is essential to see that the government also implemented policy changes to encourage the use of digital transfer services as an alternative to cash, which could be a high source of infections.

Considering steps that the Rwandan government took to stimulate usage of mobile money transfer services is quite instructive on how far-reaching properly timed policy changes can go to advance digitalisation efforts. The National bank of Rwanda had in mid-March instituted some hard to ignore policy changes in the sector with an impact on both individuals and businesses. For three months, the government suspended all charges between banks and mobile money wallets and on mobile transfers, contactless point-of-sale transactions. It also increased the limit for mobile money transfers by two hundred per cent.

Apart from stimulating a five-fold growth of mobile money transactions within a month of the policy implementation, there was also six-fold growth on the value of money transferred against pre-COVID-19 levels. Impressive results.

Still, on the mobile money sector, Tayo Oviosu, CEO of Paga, believes that the pandemic has opened the minds of consumers to the convenience of mobile money payments. Paga saw a 330% increase in the number of new users it onboarded, as compared to user acquisition numbers from the previous quarter. To deepen penetration of their service, Paga also saw sped up implementation of its QR payment product. This contactless payment method allows payment through scanning a QR code with a mobile phone, thereby reducing physical contact during transactions.

What does the future hold?

While the pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on African economies, it has also given African countries a headstart in the implementation of the Digital Transformation Strategy. It is doubtful whether the Digital Transformation Strategy would have, on its own, achieved the kind of results the pandemic has forced on all in just a few months.

The question remains whether the boost in penetration of digital technologies across Africa will be sustained after the pandemic. True, it is reasonable to expect that even if there is a retraction in terms of digital consumption of services, a new baseline might be reached post-COVID-19 higher than the threshold for the past years. To Juliet Anammah, Jumia’s head of institutional affairs, Covid-19 is merely a wakeup call. What is important is what we do afterwards.

Source African Leadership Magazine

Structural transformation may help Ethiopia’s Renewable Energy Goals Government Revenue Increase by 25% since the Launch of the Electronic Customs Management System

Related Posts

33F9F92C-3417-486D-AFA0-07790AA4A3E4

Africa, News

Africa’s smaller cities are usually overlooked: They shouldn’t be

bricsg81

Headlines

‘Déjà Vu’ all over again; BRICS vs G7 and the Looming Cold War II

A4927A6F-B03D-42CD-917A-691153351312

Headlines

After kicking Biden out, Ethiopia invites India and Russia to the Horn of Africa

Bill Gates plans personal pandemic army

https://youtu.be/8LQLtXvWHx0
https://youtu.be/oT1LO-6OC-I

Travel

  • Ethiopia has Over 10,000 Megalithic Monuments dating Back to the 1st CenturyEthiopia has Over 10,000 Megalithic Monuments Dating Back to the 1st Century
  • ethiopia_ethiopian_wolf_35Brilliant Ethiopia: The Unique Wonder
  • F6BD7E94-BC77-4B3E-B905-7B140F12F5FDKenya Had an Elephant ‘Baby Boom’ — and Now You Can Adopt One
  • Addis_herald_omo_3910 Main Tourist Attractions Places in Africa
  • Homage to Entoto Park How the Old “Town in the Forest” is turning into a newly flowering tourist hubHomage to Entoto Park How the Old “Town in the Forest” is turning into a newly flowering tourist hub

Africa

  • 33F9F92C-3417-486D-AFA0-07790AA4A3E4Africa’s smaller cities are usually overlooked: They shouldn’t be
  • 608AA5EC-B99E-4124-84AB-040EEBB5C8A6Is The US Continue Destabilizing Ethiopia? Mystery Document Revealed That Showed US/Egypt Covert Operation Training TPLF In Uganda
  • 1D758AB5-D045-4AA0-8FD8-A2FB5D49C1ACIs Ethiopia and Africa as Whole Prefers a Strong Russia over the West?
  • E271ECC4-7700-4378-ACB7-35BA1E0D8451China Says It Wants To Play Bigger Role in Horn of Africa security
  • Africa-futureThe 20th Century Belongs to Europe’s, the 21st Century Is Asia’s, and the 22nd Century Will be Africa’s

Culture

  • E00B6DCF-A08A-4223-8597-6734E7355A12Dagmawi Lalibela: The Newest Rock-hewn churches in Ethiopia
  • Iconic Ethiopian Foods You Have To Try   Read More: https://www.mashed.com/884367/iconic-ethiopian-foods-you-have-to-try-before-you-die/?utm_campaign=clipIconic Ethiopian Foods You Have To Try
  • 84B33505-D18B-4ECE-93DE-A07FC7B80E66The psychological pains of Ethiopian intellectuals
  • Hair salon in Addis AbabaHana Yilma Godine: Substance in Ethiopia
  • Or. 607The Ethiopian Emperor’s Manuscripts

Business

  • F2AF3430-E3DE-4268-B34F-BD909DAF120EUndeserved Wealth
  • 024951BA-2567-4745-85CA-1E7377D9CE64Chinese Construction Companies and Addis Ababa Booming Skyscrapers
  • 1BD88921-C209-419C-884E-908B9FBE7CECOrganized Crime Pours Cold Water On Coffee Exports
  • 07BDA6D0-DF40-41AD-9B5D-C8D723DD9D3AThe Battle for Semiconductor Supremacy ‘Chip Wars’
  • Coca-Cola-Beverages-Africa-opens-new-100m-Ethiopia-bottling-plant1Coca-Cola Beverages Africa Opens New $100m Bottling Plant in Ethiopia

RSS Allfrica.com News feed

  • Africa: Terrorism Affecting Socio-Economic Life of Some African Countries - National Security Minister
  • Africa: Ghana Banned From U-17 WWC African Qualifiers
  • Africa: Giving Malaria, Neglected Tropical Diseases the Attention it Deserves Will End Preventable Suffering
  • Africa: Do Humanitarian Agencies Help Refugees Become Independent? Evidence From History
  • Africa: Androids in Human Populations
  • Africa: New Assessments On the Values of Biodiversity and Sustainable Use of Wild Species to be Released
  • Africa: CAF Postpones 2023 Afcon to 2024
  • Africa: Nature-Positive Ventures Crucial for Continent's Future - Experts
  • Africa: African Union Establishes One Health Coordination Group On Zoonotic Diseases
  • Africa: Continent's Learning Crisis is 'Failure of Monumental Proportions'
  • Abijitta-Shalla National Park
  • Alatish Ethiopian National Park
  • Awash National Park
  • Babille Elephant Sanctuary
  • Bahir Dar Blue Nile Millennium Park
  • Bale National Park; Ethiopia’s lesser-known Treasure
  • Bale Mountains National Park
  • Borena-Sayint National Park
  • Chebera Churchura National Park
  • Dati Wolel National park
  • Gambella National Park
  • Gambella National Park 2
  • Kafta-Sheraro National Park
  • Mago National Park
  • Maze National Park
  • Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia
  • Omo National Park 
  • The Semien Mountains
  • Yabello National Park
  • Yangudi Rassa National Park
© Addis Herald 2022
  • Contact us
en English
am Amharicar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanel Greekhi Hindiit Italianja Japaneseko Koreanla Latinru Russianes Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilisv Swedish