Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
To cushion the adverse effects of COVID-19 on businesses and stay competitive, experts in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector have urged businesses to embrace digital technology capable of disrupting their businesses positively.
Chief executive officer, MainOne, Ms. Funke Opeke, during the 2021 Nerds Unite yearly conference themed “Digital disruption for sustainability and growth,” organised by MainOne, said businesses in Africa must not shy away from digital transformation, if they want to compete globally.
She explained that digital disruption is the change that occurs when digital technologies and business models affect the value proposition of existing goods and services.
“As COVID-19 has transformed our lives over the past year and we have all buckled down to reduce contagion, we have witnessed an unparalleled acceleration of the digital age, need we say ‘Digital Disruption’?
“This disruption has resulted in an acceleration of value creation by companies operating in the digital world.”
Opeke noted that the major cause of digital disruption was the rapid advancement of technology and globalisation, which allowed new business models to be introduced at an ever-increasing rate and with rapidly declining costs of adopting technology.
She said COVID-19 improved technology innovation, that digitally enabled companies have simply outperformed in all categories through the pandemic and the ability to leverage digital technologies has made the difference for the survival of certain sectors and events.
Opeke said that business insights showed that digitization is real and companies that have embraced this reality as a means of doing business are simply doing better.
“Digital solutions are enabling such disruptors gain improved operational efficiencies and maintain their competitive edge as they connect with customers and grow market share online.
“Companies in traditional industries are also finding that process automation, remote testing, access to real-time data, and decision support among many digital techniques are proving critical to their ability to stay afloat in dynamically changing markets. We need to acknowledge, however, that our region lagged behind in our ability to respond to the crisis even though, luckily, we have been spared the worst of the pandemic with some of the lowest infection rates and deaths globally.
“Nonetheless, the impact on lives and livelihoods has been significant. It has become obvious that more than ever that we need to close the gap with the rest of the world in digital transformation in order to stay competitive in the production of goods and services to secure our livelihoods and wellbeing.”
MTN Nigeria’s chief digital transformation officer, Dr. Olubayo Adekanmbi, said every institution must master and own its digital transformation to survive, as, these days, most businesses are going digital. He stressed that COVID-19 has made it inevitable.
To the founder of Interswitch Limited, Mitchell Elegbe, the technology industry has seen a lot more solution-oriented projects aimed at creating better societies in recent times.
He, however, highlighted the need to have the right business model, as not all business models would survive in the digital era.