African Media Agency -English
Africa’s e-government efforts are bearing fruit
By Sunil Geness, Director: Global Government Affairs & CSR at SAP Africa
LAGOS, Nigeria, 20th December 2021 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/- Following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on governments and citizens, countries across the African continent are looking at e-government with renewed interest and urgency.
In its latest E-Government Survey, the UN notes that governments around the world are looking at new e-government initiatives in their pursuit of digital government transformation. These include the expansion of e-participation, the delivery of e-government as a platform, the innovative use of intelligent technologies to power smart cities, and the adoption of data-centric approaches to service delivery and government policy.
E-government is defined as the use of information and communication technologies to transform government services – its processes, procedures and structures – by making it more accessible, effective and accountable.
According to the UN, e-government holds the potential to improve the delivery of public services and is an enabler of effective, transparent and accountable public institutions.
African nations show encouraging growth in e-services
All regions are making progress with developing e-government capabilities, but Africa is showing the greatest growth. The number of UN member states in Africa that have low e-government development index (EGDI) values dropped from 26 in 2016 to only seven in 2020. Sadly, no African country can yet boast very high EGDI values: in Europe, 33 countries have ‘very high’ EGDI values, and 15 in Asia.
Although lagging more developed regions, Africa has the largest share of countries that have moved to a higher EGDI group of all regions. The African countries with the highest EGDI values are Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa and Tunisia, who are all in the top 100 globally.
As governments respond to the challenges brought by the pandemic, many are placing greater emphasis on e-government services, which can be evidenced in
· Expanded national portal features
· Improved transactional online services such as tax submissions, license renewals, permits and business registrations
· Greater digitisation of sectoral services in health, employment, justice, employment and social protection
· Extending online services to vulnerable groups including the elderly, persons with disabilities, youth and women.
Sixty-five to seventy percent of African countries allow citizens to register a business online, while more than half allow citizens to apply for a government post or request birth, death or marriage certificates.
However, access to digital services remains an obstacle to greater e-government development in Africa. The continent’s internet penetration is estimated at 36% – or 473 million people – and digital literacy levels are also comparably lower than more developed regions.
New policies point to data-driven governments
One of the key components of effective e-government is the effective use of government data. With much of the world’s data resting in the hands of a small number of global cloud and digital services providers, African nations have taken note of the importance of leveraging data that could be applied in the service of national and regional decision-making and policy development.
As one of the most digitally mature of all African nations, South Africa produces huge and growing volumes of personal, public, corporate and government data. Its recently published National Data and Cloud Policy sets out how the government can better use data as a natural resource, mine it for insights, and apply those insights to improve service delivery.
The African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy is also clear in its intention to ensure the continent’s ownership of modern digital tools, but with only 1% of the world’s data centres, many countries still have some work to do.
Next steps hold key to e-government success
What is the way forward for Africa’s e-government growth? The UN believes comprehensive national digital transformation strategies and implementation plans that integrate national priorities with regional and global priorities are essential.
Encouragingly, many African countries have taken bold steps forward in this regard. Nigeria has introduced a Government Integrated Financial Management Information System; Mauritius is in the process of establishing a regional e-governance academy; Zimbabwe has enabled a public-sector financial management system; and Ethiopia has connected cash registers at retail outlets directly to the country’s tax authority.
The Smart Africa initiative, which was established in 2013, puts ICT at the centre of socio-economic development, encourages greater access to ICT, aims to improve accountability and efficiency through the use of ICT, and more broadly leveraging ICT to promote sustainable development.
The Policy and Regulation Initiative for Digital Africa, a joint programme between the African Union, European Union and International Telecommunication Union, aims to facilitate universally accessible, affordable and effective wireless broadband across the continent, with the ultimate goal of bringing an additional 300 million people in Africa online by 2025.
As countries across Africa accelerate their adoption of digital technologies, new opportunities are being created for more efficient and accessible public services that can help establish a more equitable and enabling environment for citizens and businesses alike.
Building on the success of the past few years, countries can take bold steps toward greater regional and global competitiveness while enhancing the citizen experience for all who call Africa home.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of SAP Africa.
Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @SAPNews.
About SAP
As the Experience Company powered by the Intelligent Enterprise, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP® system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 440,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV.
For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)
For more information, press only:
Delia Sieff, SAP Africa, +27 (11) 235 6000, delia.sieff@sap.com
The post Africa’s e-government efforts are bearing fruit appeared first on African Media Agency.
African Media Agency -English
Leading US-Africa Trade and Investments Initiative, Prosper Africa Partners with Africa Fintech Summit as Gold Sponsor
WASHINGTON DC, United States of America, 20 March 2022, /African Media Agency/- Africa Fintech Summit is pleased to announce Prosper Africa as a Gold Sponsor for Africa Fintech Summit in 2023 to be held in Washington DC on the 12th April 2023 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Prosper Africa is the U.S. Government initiative to increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and African countries.
The sponsorship comes at the heels of the US-Africa Leadership Summit (ALS) and the U.S.-Africa Business Forum, held last December in Washington, D.C.
Recognizing the tremendous growth potential of Africa’s technology sector, President Joe Biden announced the launch of the White House’s Digital Transformation with Africa (DTA) initiative to expand digital access and literacy across the continent, and Prosper Africa announced the new Prosper Africa Tech for Trade Alliance, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at the Business Forum on December 14.
The Prosper Africa Tech for Trade Alliance will be officially launched at a special session during the Africa Fintech Summit. This tech alliance of major U.S. companies aims to accelerate e-commerce and digital trade in Africa and address legal, regulatory, and logistical bottlenecks across the continent.
“Africa’s digital ecosystem offers massive potential to spur economic recovery, promote opportunity, and create jobs,” said Scott Cameron, Acting Prosper Africa Coordinator. “We’re pleased to join the Africa Fintech Summit as a Gold Sponsor and partner for the upcoming 9th Summit here in Washington DC.”
Prosper Africa will be joined by other U.S. Government agencies to engage with the tech innovators, founders, and ecosystem players and showcase the full suite of U.S. Government services and resources to advance fintech growth and U.S.-Africa investment.
Since launching Prosper Africa in June 2019, the U.S. Government has helped close 1100 deals across 49 countries for a total estimated value of $65 billion in two-way trade and investment.
“It is with immense gratitude and great pleasure that we welcome Prosper Africa as our Gold Sponsor for our summit in Washington DC in April this year. We are keen to work with Prosper Africa and the initiative’s partner U.S. Government agencies to avail US’ innovation capital to the African Fintech and tech ecosystem through the various tools at hand and deepen the US-Africa tech and investment ties,” said Zekarias Amsalu, Co-Founder of AFTS and MD of Ibex Frontier.
Since its first summit in 2018, the Africa Fintech Summit has become the largest bi-annual financial technology gathering on the African continent. In addition to Prosper Africa’s Gold sponsorship, AFTS will be supported by a diverse cohort of partners and sponsors.
The 9th edition of AFTS will focus on US-Africa Tech connection, fintech regulatory best practices, diaspora banking & remittance, African fintechs expanding globally, cross border payment movements & use-cases for decentralized finance (Defi), fintech funding trends, cross-border payments under the AfCFTA, and numerous other spotlight topics.
Tickets for AFTS Washington DC are on sale now. To learn more or to register, visit http://africafintechsummit.com/
Delegates get 25% on AFTS tickets by using the discount code PROSPER25 at checkout of registration at http://africafintechsummit.com/registration
Distributed by African Media Agency in partnership with Africa Fintech Summit.
About Africa Fintech Summit
AFTS ( https://africafintechsummit.com ) is the premier global initiative dedicated to the African fintech ecosystem. AFTS is traditionally hosted in Washington, D.C., each April during the World Bank/IFC annual meeting week and in a different African city each November (most recently Cape Town, Lagos, Addis Ababa and Cairo). The summit is being held in a hybrid format, in person in the selected Venue in compliance with COVID-19 protocol and global live virtual delegates.
Supported by an advisory board of thought leaders and fintech pioneers, AFTS is a unique space where innovative ideas are debated, investments mobilized, partnership deals signed, and collaborations formed across sectors and geographies. AFTS is organized in partnership between Washington, D.C. based firms, strategic advisory group, Dedalus Global, and Pan-African consultancy advisory firm, Ibex Frontier.
About Prosper Africa
Prosper Africa Prosper Africa is the White House initiative to increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and African countries. Prosper Africa brings together – and enhances – the full suite of U.S. Government services and resources to help companies and investors do business in U.S. and African markets. Through the initiative, the U.S. Government is launching innovative new tools to advance deals, unlock market opportunities, and strengthen business and investment climates.
For more information, please visit: prosperafrica.gov
Media contact:
Charles Isidi
Digital Engagement Strategist, AFTS
charles@africafintechsummit.com
The post Leading US-Africa Trade and Investments Initiative, Prosper Africa Partners with Africa Fintech Summit as Gold Sponsor appeared first on African Media Agency.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 16 March 2023 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/- Companies are in a race to achieve new digital capabilities as ongoing economic disruption and a changing business landscape drive the need for rapid innovation. African organisations are accelerating their adoption of cloud solutions to drive greater efficiency, scale into new markets, and meet changing customer demands.
Gartner predicts that worldwide spending on public cloud services will grow 20.7% to reach $591.8-billion in 2023, outpacing the 18.8% growth forecast for 2022.
However, says Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at SAP, moving to cloud environments requires effective change management to ensure digital transformation initiatives reach their objectives. “There is palpable excitement around cloud services in African markets, but there are still questions around how to effectively migrate and how to orchestrate multiple cloud solutions once the migration is complete. And while it’s true that one of the main benefits of cloud services is the ability to fail quickly without incurring huge cost or time overruns, you really don’t want your cloud initiative to fail due to poor change management.”
Studies have highlighted the importance of effective change management to the success of digital transformation initiatives. McKinsey data indicates that less than a third of digital transformation initiatives succeed worldwide. This is partly due to poor change management, of which barely a third (34%) are clear successes.
Methodology, Partners reduce perils of Cloud Migrations
Brent Flint, Head of Enterprise Applications at Dimension Data, believes part of the answer to effective change management during cloud transformation projects rests on an effective methodology. “Migrating core business processes from on-premise environments to the cloud requires a proven methodology to accelerate the transition and reduce associated risks. A repeatable methodology that incorporates automation to ensure aspects such as data integrity, for example, can ease data migration and speed up the time-to-value.”
SAP introduced RISE with SAP in 2021 to help companies get started with SAP cloud solutions, accelerate cloud adoption, and simplify the process of shifting core business processes to cloud environments. “Companies undertaking digital transformation initiatives that could benefit from RISE need to ensure their implementation partners are accredited and have the skills capacity to support the project throughout,” explains Flint.
Beveridge adds that companies that successfully leverage the insight, skills and experience of partner organisations can reduce risk and enhance the impact and business outcomes of their transformation efforts. “Companies are realising that cloud adoption is not a once-off event: it requires near-continuous refinement and evolution to deliver business value. This makes the role of expert partners, who have developed experience with specific use cases of cloud technologies and can guide organisations in their adoption of cloud solutions, critical to their success.”
Keys to cloud success
Understanding how and where the journey to the cloud should start remains among the biggest obstacles to the digital transformation efforts of African organisations.
Lauren Wortmann, Vice President: Applications at Dimension Data, says there’s still some resistance to the cloud among organisations limiting the success of cloud transformation projects. “Cloud adoption is a business-critical activity, but the optimal starting point is not always clear. Many organisations and their IT teams also acknowledge that the shift to cloud is coming, but there’s internal resistance due to fear about how it will affect the business and existing IT skills.”
Arguably the most important factor when developing a cloud strategy is defining a clear business case for cloud adoption. “Cloud is not just about cost efficiency,” says Wortmann. “It’s about modernising the business and its core processes, unlocking new opportunities, enhancing capabilities and achieving broader digital transformation. For this to be successful, there needs to be massive buy-in from the business at every layer, from the boardroom to the IT department and every end-user.”
The era of large on-premise deployments was typified by big winners and big losers, but the new era of cloud has changed the dynamic entirely. Flint explains: “In the old days, if you defined the scope of the project correctly upfront and quoted accurately, you could deliver a successful implementation that delivered new capabilities and was profitable to the technology provider and their implementation partner. The era of cloud requires a change of mindset. Today, tech vendors and partner organisations need to strive for near-continuous innovation, with KPIs around unlocking additional business value from existing technologies built into managed services contracts. It puts the onus on partners to unlock features and benefits from software, with the goal of ongoing value generation.”
Wortmann adds that companies should be smart when choosing how they start their cloud journey. “Aspects such as Human Capital Management are perfect starting points for cloud adoption, with solutions like SAP SuccessFactors offering a high-value, low-risk way to test how cloud migration plays out in the organisation. Larger, more critical business processes such as core finance, sales and logistics carry high degrees of risk due to fears of disruption and business continuity in the event of downtime.”
Flint believes one of the keys to successful cloud adoption is simplification. “Organisations should work with their partners to understand their application landscape and identify opportunities for simplification. Reducing customisation can also keep things simple while driving costs down. Partners need to avoid customisation to limit technical debt and achieve quicker time to value. Adopting best-practice standards for core business processes opens the door to incremental innovation which can suit cloud-first companies better.”
Beveridge says this requires a change in mindset to how digital transformation initiatives are approached, both by customers and partners. “The most successful tech partners will be the ones that develop strong commercial models that meet customers’ expectations of what value digital transformation projects should deliver. However, there’s no blueprint for how this should work. Organisations should work closely with tech providers and implementation partners to develop strong business use cases and change management programmes to ensure each initiative delivers business value and unlocks new capabilities, efficiencies and opportunities for growth.”
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of SAP Africa.
About SAP
SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.
Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV.
For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
For more information, press only:
Delia Sieff, SAP Africa, +27 (11) 235 6000, delia.sieff@sap.com
The post Change management best practice for cloud transformation success appeared first on African Media Agency.
-
Entreprendreil y'a 6 joursZoom sur Soutramoi : Bénédicte Koffi, Développeuse passionnée, entrepreneure convaincue
-
Businessil y'a 6 joursRadisson Hôtel Group continue d’étendre sa présence en Afrique
-
African Media Agency -Englishil y'a 6 joursLeading US-Africa Trade and Investments Initiative, Prosper Africa Partners with Africa Fintech Summit as Gold Sponsor
-
African Media Agency (AMA)il y'a 1 semaine
L’énergie solaire alimente en eau les agriculteurs nigériens
-
Technologiesil y'a 6 joursUne étude d’Infobip révèle la montée du » tout conversationnel » dans les échanges avec les clients
-
Startupil y'a 5 joursL’edtech Camerounaise Prepdia s’installe au Gabon
-
Conseils & Astucesil y'a 3 jours
5 stratégies pour utiliser WhatsApp afin de stimuler vos ventes pendant le ramadan
-
African Media Agency (AMA)il y'a 6 jours
Une expérience immersive Et cinématographique avec la télévision LG
You must be logged in to post a comment Login