The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt, disrupted the world in unimaginable ways. Many experts have, however, argued that it has, also, presented many opportunities for developing economies like ours, to re-tool and re-strategise for the future.
I, recently, had a chat, with Adekunle Ajiboye, CEO, Aajimatics, on Tech Trends show, on Channels Television. Adekunle understands how to leverage technology to drive change and he shares this thought and many more.
CFA: Adekunle, glad to have you on the show today.
Adekunle: Thank you CFA. It is an honour and a pleasure to be with you.
CFA: Let us start with this. How would you describe the effects of COVID in accelerating technology globally?
Adekunle: Well, as we can see, it impacted healthcare immediately because, a lot of services were delivered by tele-health. Tele-health had been struggling, even, in developed economies, but COVID accelerated the embracing of tele-health, big time.
E-banking, also. was impacted, immediately, but for a country like Nigeria, it was a challenge because, the fund, ought to have been received, electronically, for you to disburse it electronically.
If 70% to 80% of our people did not receive funds electronically and they weren’t able to go and make the deposits at the ATM or in the bank, then, it impacted cash flow.
As a matter of fact, recent statistics from NIBBS shows that, there was about 40% drop in e-transactions, over the past quarter, due to the COVID.
Yes, it impacted, moving a lot of things onto electronic platforms.
CFA: If you look at the whole situation, you would say to yourself, okay, maybe it’s been awesome for tech giants, but for a
country like Nigeria, what would be your assertion?
Adekunle: Well, we are aware of the infrastructure challenges, leadership issues, but creativity is bubbling to the top in Nigeria.
Despite the challenges, the situation, the limitations, our youths, our techies, which you are aware of You know them. They are coming up. They are being creative in every way.
There is hope, but there is a lot that needs to be done, to support and allow these creativity to turn into tangible results for all stakeholders.
CFA: As an expert, what are some of the things you think we should start doing today?
Adekunle: If we look at it from different angles, the private sector is doing the best it can, within its ambiance and that is where I may speak about.
We, as private sector, cannot improve infrastructure, That’s the role of the government, but we can support our talent. We can help nurture, despite deliberate challenges that we have.
I give you a good example. In the USA and Canada, because of COVID, a lot of internship that students would normally have were cancelled by the companies because, they didn’t know what was happening. There was no certainty.
Now, Aajimatics always takes interns every year. This year, we were almost about to scrap internship position, but guess what. One of the Universities in the USA decided to pay, for their students to be interns with us for 12 weeks. Amazing. Now, can we get something like that in Nigeria?
As an expert, I can speak of technology. I can peak of entrepreneurship. I can speak of innovation. All those are trying to thrive in the country. We just have to give more room. Look at Idea Hub. It went away because of a lot of politics and stakeholder issues.
What can we do? In terms of technology, in terms of talents, we’re there. but the enabling environment must be improved.
You can watch the full interview here
