Larbi said the technology could be applied in different sectors to enhance socio-economic impact
Ghana, with the right investments in critical infrastructure, has the potential to become a technology-driven and digitized economy in the next five years, said Mr. Chris Larbi, West Africa Area Manager, Cisco Meraki.
He said while Ghana seemed to be a few years behind due to socio-economic impacts, there are indications that the country will be at the forefront of internet technology in the next five to ten years.
Mr Larbi was speaking at a seminar about how technology was helping to reshape the way things were done so that people, for example, could now easily fix wireless problems from the comfort of their homes when previously they had to to go to the office.
“It means we allow companies to scale. Likewise, we’ve done with so many companies that have done 500% in less than five years. With our growth we can keep people in jobs.”
“We have to be able to put ourselves ahead of the curve. And I think Ghana is making adjustments. And I think things will happen where Cisco Meraki brings new products and new product portfolios that help not only in education so that everyone can to use technology, but also to allow people to scale and grow as much as possible,” said Mr Larbi.
He said the technology could be applied in various sectors such as oil and gas, defence, financial institutions and hospitality, among others.
On AI, Mr. Larbi said it is the future and businesses should embrace it as it helps them perform their tasks efficiently, adding that Meraki is already integrating Al into its platforms to facilitate work processes.
Mr. Olusegun Enitan Dada, CEO of IT HORIZONS, an African IT company, praised the innovative digital transformation solutions currently being implemented by the Government of Ghana.
He said initiatives such as bringing together the entire database system to ensure that from one central point any Ghanaian could be identified could help the country develop as well as the Smart City project could help Mr. Dada said there are many potential in African countries. including Ghana and IT, Horozons was trying to cover them.
He said that COVID-19 has really helped to change the technology landscape not only in Africa but also around the world “And you can also see that even from the various digital applications that have come out every now and then it helps to make things easy and better”.
He said that Al had always been there, but now he was more intense and would require everyone to increase their knowledge as well.