The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Technological

  • How legacy media can survive technological revolution

    From Facebook and Twitter to blogs and YouTube, technology has made us all publishers. However, while the public have been quick to adopt tech innovations, the same can’t be said for many media organisations.

    During the 2018 Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators Forum, four technology entrepreneurs gave their take on how modern media platforms are shaping African media and their perspectives on what trends to look out for.

    The entrepreneurs were: Uche Pedro, Founder of Nigerian online media company BellaNaija; Tim Kotin, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Superfluid, a Pan-African Data Analytics Company based in Ghana; Mamadou Gouro Sidibe, founder of Malian social media platform Lenali, and Lesley Donna Williams, CEO of Tshimologong Project, Precinct a tech start-up incubator based in Johannesburg.

    Below is the  transcript of the discussion.

    What is the current state of the media industry in Africa?

    Tim Kotin: The role of media is evolving from one of news origination to one of curation and provision of insights. As a result of the internet’s expansion and the explosion of information, the most important value the media can provide now is no longer the origination of stories but the provision of insights and relevance. Individuals are looking for stories that connect with them on a personal level.

    Lesley Donna Williams: Technology is disrupting the media space and we need to grow with it, and create a new kind of industry. Take for example, Blixer, a streaming platform being developed in the DRC for Congolese music. Or in Zimbabwe, where they are digitising the sound of the Mbira (thumb piano) to bring something new to urban music. Such projects are bringing uniquely African options to audiences through far-reaching technologies.

    What can traditional media companies in Africa do to survive the ongoing technological revolution?

    Mamadou Gouro Sidibe: The future of the media in the continent is inclusive. The user experience is the main thing that will generate revenue and investors must look at new approaches. Now is the biggest opportunity to invest in new technologies and new platforms.

    Uche Pedro: Successful media businesses are those that build a sense of community with their clients. Platform fluidity is one of the ways the industry has transformed in the last few years. The days of just having a website are over; media owners who want to build strong connections with their audiences must be where the consumers are – on multiple platforms. I see a rise in citizen participation on the production of media as an opportunity for traditional media owners to partner with local communities to tell their stories. Traditional media producers can take advantage of  the pools of communities on social media to enhance their digital presence and generate revenues. They can also use the emerging and large networks of citizen journalists to provide local content in the most relevant and engaging way.  There is value in aggregating and personalising content. I have seen this done successfully through artificial intelligence and machine learning but there is still a need to create original content.

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    Mamadou Gouro Sidibe, founder, Lenali, and Uche Pedro, Founder, BellaNaija

     What aspect of the audience needs should traditional media companies seeking to innovate  know?

    Uche Pedro: Young people are no longer waiting to be included. They are creating their own platforms and their own content. This shift not only comes from a lack of trust in politicians but also a questioning of whether national broadcasters are speaking to the needs of young people. The lack of trust stems from the perception that media businesses on the continent have been incentivised to behave in unethical ways. With the use of technology and the reliance on local journalists, traditional media can win the interests of their younger audiences.

    Lesley Donna Williams: It is important for creators of tech products to go to market with the minimum viable products. They need to make sure that what they have is market ready – is tested and can be scaled. They need to make sure that they haven’t built their product for 1000 people, only for 40,000 or 100,000 take up the platform.

    What can African governments do to encourage innovation in the media sector?

    Tim Kotin: From a policy perspective, there has to be a willingness to allow for exploration and innovation. Governments must provide enabling environments for businesses to foster collaboration between existing and start-up companies.

    Uche Pedro: Provision of infrastructure and basic services should remain a priority. If entrepreneurs are unable to access electricity and connectivity, how can they run successful businesses?

  • Poor budgetary allocation affects Nigeria’s technological development, says union

    The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has expressed displeasure over low budgetary allocation to the education sector, which has consistently fallen below the UNESCO benchmark of 26 per cent.

    The union blamed low allocation to the sector for the failure of any Nigerian university being ranked among the first 500 in the world.

    The union, in a communiqué at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, therefore, urged the federal and state governments to give priority to budgetary allocation to the education sector.

    In the communiqué by NAAT General Secretary, Comrade Hamilton Iyoyo, the union said across the world, countries are budgeting hugely to improve their technological sector, stressing that Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind.

    The union’s NEC also urged the government to honour and implement agreements reached with unions to forestall unquantifiable losses in man-hours, negative impact on the economy, and other losses occasioned by incessant strike actions.

  • Building local capacity

    Despite Nigeria’s prospects for greatness right from her pre-independence period, it had however failed to harness the full benefits of her abundant resources over the years.

    The main reason, no doubt, was due to inability of the Nigerian leaders to put their acts together towards developing the country.

    Due to this, among other factors, Nigeria have remained technologically backward in the past 56 years of her existence.

    Many countries at par with Nigeria at independence in 1960 have long left Nigeria behind technological and economically.

    They have been able to join the league of technologically advancement nations.

    But rather than grow technologically, Nigeria became dependent on other nations for many finished products for which it had been abundantly blessed by God with the raw materials.

    While raw materials have continued to leave the shores of Nigeria in exchange for more or less peanuts, they return to Nigeria as finished product, which are bought with hard earned foreign currencies.

    This was the sorry state Nigeria has found herself over the years.

    Many programmes introduced by various administrations right from Nigeria’s independence, for one reason or the other, have not been able to ensure technological development of the country.

    To change Nigeria’s story, the Federal Executive Council meeting, chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, last Wednesday approved a new policy.

    The President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is focusing on building local capacity by facilitating the setting up of foreign factories in Nigeria.

    Announcing the new initiative, the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu said: “The Federal Executive Council in its deliberations approved policy that will help us to change the direction that will be taken as a nation, a direction that will be very useful in helping us to start looking inwards to produce the things that we need as against depending on outside, other people to import our requirements.

    “Some of the highlights will involve where we have bulk purchases major items that will bring into the country those who normally would have supplied from outside the country will now come to Nigeria and establish their factories to produce in Nigeria.

    “By doing so, they will offer job opportunities to our people, tax will be paid to our government, wealth will be created and most importantly, Nigeria will now acquire the necessary technology that will help us build capacity.

    “We also agreed that from now on, any person who wants to practice any profession that has anything to do with science, engineering and technology, medical doctors, accountants, quantity surveyors just to mention a few, that first they have to be certified by appropriate regulatory bodies in Nigeria.

    “This is very important in our building our local capacity. There are so many areas that this new policy has coved because the aim of this new policy is to make sure that in the next ten years, Nigeria firms will be in a position to  carry out very complex jobs. A sort of jobs that we don’t currently have the expertise to do in the country.

    “And for such jobs, we will rely on foreign expertise and foreign firms for now but when they come, they have to work with Nigerian firms so that these Nigerian firms will understudy them and this will be from the conception to the commissioning.

    “That is the only way that we can hope to acquire the necessary technology to build our local capacity because our aim is like in the next ten years like I said we will be able to have own domestic firms, Nigerian firms to carry out all these jobs.” he said

    He went on “And in about 20 years, we want to see Nigerian firms competing with the very best in the world.

    “So, the Federal Executive Council, accepted to declare a state of emergency for science and technology and this is very important because even the economic recovery and growth plan 2018 to 2020 recognizes the cardinal place of science and technology in driving this recovery and growth plan of government.

    “We are not looking for transfer of technology because we know it will not happen, what we are looking for is acquisition of technology and we are interested  in building our own capacity.

    “We are convinced that we can do this and we believe that with the approval given to this policy once implemented, we will be in a position to acquire technology.

    “This policy is a very comprehensive policy. We will pay a lot of attention to training. We will make sure that we have all the artisans we need, all the technicians that we need so that once somebody is building a house, once you get up to finishing of that house, you are most likely going to bring people from outside the country.

    “Many of them come from our neighbouring countries. This we will not allow to continue. So we want to build the requisite manpower.

    “We will also use the Ministry of Interior to help us with a new classification in our immigration policy.

    “Those areas that we lack expertise as of now, we will use that classification to bring in those who have such expertise particularly from African countries.

    “Then we will also be working closely with Nigerians in the Diaspora because many Nigerians outside the country have a lot of skills which we need at this time particularly in order to implement this policy, we will be working with them.” he said

    It can only be hoped that the new policy will not go the way of other similar policies and programmes initiated in the past.

    Because of poor implementation among other factors, they all failed to develop Nigeria technological.

  • Technological triumph

    •Nigeria must begin to avail itself of advances in technology

    One of the most prominent characteristics of the contemporary era is the speed and comprehensiveness of technological change. The truth of this was asserted yet again when a solar-powered aircraft launched an ambitious attempt to make the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe.

    Called Solar Impulse-2, the aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi last week, and will cross India, China, the Pacific Ocean, the United States and the Atlantic before landing in Oman after 25 days later. The significance of a successful journey is hard to downplay. It will demonstrate the increasing relevance of solar power and other clean technologies in an era of global warming, growing environmental pollution and climate change, and will further accelerate the adoption of products, services and techniques based on them.

    Where does all this leave Nigeria? In the immediate short-term, the country will suffer. Indeed, the sharp decline in the price of crude oil, its main export, has already begun to have negative effects on revenues. Like other developing nations, the emergence of new technologies and processes will upset current policies based on outdated approaches to agriculture, manufacturing and industry.

    The irony, however, is that Nigeria is also uniquely placed to take maximum advantages of green technologies if it can comprehensively integrate them into the development process. Unlike developed economies that have had to experiment with nuclear power, for instance, Nigeria can focus its efforts on solar, wind, wave and other forms of renewable energy. The advantages are even more beneficial when it is realised that the country has an abundance of the sunlight and coasts that are the basis of these new technologies.

    To achieve these goals, there must be a wide-ranging change in attitudes. In spite of the obvious benefits of modern technology, it does not seem that Nigerians are mentally conditioned to exploit them to the fullest. A notorious example is the uproar over card-readers in the forthcoming general elections. Even though the efficiency of card technology has been conclusively demonstrated in the banking sector, there appears to be no consensus on extending its benefits to an electoral process in which fraud has been rampant.

    One way in which this problem can be adequately resolved is to expand and entrench the use of renewable energies to the extent that it is more prominent in development policy. Federal and state governments can begin to insist on solar-powered street lights on all roads currently under construction. The Lagos State government can extend its commendable school solar power initiative to more schools, and to its housing estates and parastatals. Businesses and firms should begin to sponsor research into  renewable energy and projects like Solar Impulse-2.

    It is especially important that interest in renewable energy increases in Nigerian society generally. Given their travails with public power supply, it is amazing that more citizens have not taken it upon themselves to learn more about sources of power which are almost infinite in their sustainability. The available alternatives are woefully inadequate, and are often limited to the noisy and polluting generators that have become ubiquitous across the national landscape.

    Such attitudes are to be contrasted with what is prevalent in other places. The Solar Impulse-2 project is being promoted by Swiss nationals, and is the logical evolution of their enduring passion with extending the frontiers of renewable energy. It has received corporate sponsorship, worldwide publicity, and is leveraging the pioneering spirit of its pilots to the fullest.

    The lesson is clear: no nation can make real progress if its citizens do not make concerted efforts to conduct scientific research and ensure that they benefit fully from its fruits.