Airtel Africa’s Group CEO, Segun
Ogunsanya has challenged the telecommunications industry in Africa to leverage
emerging technologies to enable all people in the continent to connect, engage
and transact with the rest of the world.Airtel Africa’s Group CEO, Segun Ogunsanya and Rwanda President, Paul Kagame
Speaking at the just concluded Mobile
World Congress in Kigali, Dr Ogunsanya noted that through these technologies, telecom
players have an opportunity to step up efforts to bridge the digital divide,
drive financial inclusion and deepen availability of affordable smart devices. He
cited Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) as a powerful tool for
predicting customer behaviour and deepening insights about customer needs and
preferences. Opportunity also exists in intelligent connectivity, a concept that
foresees the combination of 5G, the Internet of Things and Artificial
Intelligence to accelerate technological development and enable new disruptive
digital services.
“The telecom industry is in a unique
position to make it easier for people to enter the digital world by deploying
these technologies. This is through significant investments in building digital
highways across the continent, while creating a vibrant mobile money ecosystem.
Through collaborations with equipment manufacturers and other key stakeholders,
we can put smart devices in the hands of every African.” Dr Ogunsanya said.
The Airtel Africa Group argued that a
significant proportion of Africa’s young population still remains unreached
with 59% smartphone penetration and only two out of ten Africans have a mobile
money wallet.
Emerging technologies can be used in:
AI-aided e-learning to design best curriculum based on students learning
abilities; e-health to improve patient monitoring and more efficient health facilities;
Agritech that uses AI and connectivity in crop disease detection tools; and financial
inclusion, by triangulating the digital highway, unified payment system and
intelligent mobile wallets.
The technologies can be used in smart
cities for safe communities and
efficient public utilities; development planning to predict population
movements and help governments in designing urban and rural development; and
smart metering for accurate measurement of usage, enhanced sustainability and
improved customer experience. Biometric technology can be used for
authentication, privacy, access control and non-repudiation.
Airtel Africa is rolling out 5G network
across its 14 markets in Africa with the aim of facilitating a digitally
connected world and unlocking a broad range of opportunities. The firm has also
recently announced a collaboration with the Government of Rwanda to provide
over 1 million people in the country with affordable high-speed, cutting-edge
LTE smartphones.
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