Covid-19 Crisis: African Countries Must Adapt Smart Automation – NITDA DG

BY GLORIA USMAN, ABUJA – The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has said that the opportunity in the COVID-19 pandemic is for Nigeria in particular and African countries in general to adapt to Smart Automation.

Abdullahi, who stated this during his online presentation on Smart Automation Africa/West Africa hosted by Tradepass, noted that in every crisis, there is a hidden opportunity.

The Webinar, hosted by Tradepass is the biggest in Africa with the theme: “Smart Automation in Africa,” the virtual event was exclusively focused on the benefits of automation for organisations in East and South Africa with over 300 participants.

The aim of the meeting is to focus on the benefits of automation for organizations in West Africa channeled towards growth and development. 

Abdullahi, who deliberated on the effects of Smart Automation which he said constitutes pre-era, era and post-era of COVID-19 further noted that this era consists of the fear, the hope, crisis, impact and the silver lining as well as the recovery and the Digital First strategy.

According to Abdullahi; “Smart automation expedites processes and minimises human errors. It power’s industries to innovate and grow in size exponentially”.

The NITDA DG categorised his presentation into three folds namely; Smart Automation in pre-COVID-19, (fairs and hubs), Smart Automation in COVID-19 (the crisis, impacts and the silver lining), and Smart Automation post COVID-19 (the recovery and the digital fast strategy).

Speaking to his online audience, Abdullahi said; “In February 2020 according to statistics, global Automation market size was more than 186 billion USD and predictions shows its increase to over 214.3 billion USD in 2021 with process Automation topping the market share with 71.2billion USD. This was followed by industrial software, factory automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and drum step technology.” 

He said that according to World Economic Forum, the emerging estimated professions resulting from automation could account for 6.1 million jobs globally from 2020 to 2022, saying; “JP Morgan believes automation can increase global GDP by over 1.3 trillion USD in the next 10 years from 2020.”

Abdullahi holds the view that in Nigeria today, smart automation is the most promising silver lining in this crisis, adding that the banking sector is the most automated in terms of process automation.

He said; “There have been reports of huge revenues through electronic transactions which are done by customers from the comfort of their homes with Mobile devices.” 

“Yes, there are challenges like inadequate funding, policies and enabling environments, over reliance on foreign goods and technologies faced by African countries, but with this covid-19 crisis, African countries should think within the box to produce what it desires”, he argued.” 

He therefore advised African countries to come up with right policies, enabling environments and best practices with adequate funding to achieve optimum goals and growth during this crisis.

Other presenter at the webinar include the Chief Information Officer, Dangote Group Prasanna Kumar Burri and the Chief Executive Officer of Vodacom, Ghana, Mr. Moses Okundi.