Several businesses around the African continent visited Globacom’s stand at the just -oncluded Africa CEO Forum; to seek the telephone service provider’s superior network to facilitate their business growth.
The businesses, represented by their top executives, held talks with company officials at the Globacom stand on the possibilities of harnessing Glo solutions like Internet connectivity, mobile money solutions, Wide Area Connectivity (WAN), credit check for postpaid subscribers, and bundled mobile solutions to run their various organisations.
The business leaders who were at the Glo stand during the conference included Chairman, KPMG Africa, Kunle Elebute; Group Chief Executive Officer of Togo-based Ecobank, Ade Adeyemi; Chairman of MTN Cameroon, Colin Mukete; Chief Executive Officer, Ark Hudson, Ugo Ikpeazu and Head of Business, Mara Phone, James Kasugi. Others who held talks with the company’s officials were: Group Chief Executive Officer, Credit Registry, Jameelah Sharrieff; Chief Executive Officer of Sodeico of Congo Democratic Republic, Djo Falanga and Director General of Azur of Gabon, Jean Obambi.
At the Digital Economy session, Globacom’s Executive Vice Chairman, Mrs Bella Disu, called on governments across the continent to create the enabling environment for telecommunication companies to connect cities and rural communities to the internet. She said this would help operators adopt digital solutions that would make Africa catch up with global trends.
Paul Kagame, President of the host country, Rwanda, had initiated the enquiries into Globacom’s hi-tech solutions at an exclusive meeting with Mrs. Disu.
Mrs. Disu said that businesses must innovate because the world was experiencing rapid digital transformation. “We live in an exponential world, it’s no longer a question of ‘do I have to innovate’, we must innovate. So telecommunications operators will spearhead this innovation. First, we provide the infrastructure, the network, the platforms and connectivity for digital transformation to occur, and the resulting effect is big data, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and internet of things which connects everything to everybody. So businesses must run on new business models to stay in business”, she argued.
She buttressed her call for more internet access with the World Bank report which showed that 10 percent increase in internet access led directly to 1.8 precent growth in the gross domestic product (GDP).