Contador Harrison

South Africa digitisation is the most robust in Africa from available digitised records sharing country’s history to use of technology in economic sectors.  Thanks to a dedicated team that has been implementing such projects with expertise and experience on the technologies .Using digitised records has helped South Africans expand their knowledge and challenge received narratives of the apartheid It also brings the dangers of displacing historical and critical understanding with an emphasis on nationalism and fellow-feeling. Those digital archives that invite reflection and collaboration may be the most successful at engaging audiences in a more complex understanding of the racial past. For this reason, the impulses of family history, and the searchability of digital archives, are critically important characteristics of successful digitisation projects.There’s need for public to be able to trace their understanding of private testimonies back to those families who received, heard,...

Fintech is causing headache to African banking players who are already grappling with mobile money revolution . The wave of financial technology companies, more widely known as fintech firms, has affected Africans lives in many ways, as fintech offers simplicity, speed, cohesiveness and streamlined processes. The overwhelming majority of Africa’s banks and traditional financial services firms believe part of their business is at risk of being lost to standalone Fintech challengers.The banks are already assessing the rise of new technologies in financial services and their impact on the sector, and according to some data available to me, banks in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya found that three quarter of traditional financial services firms believe part of their business is at risk from a Fintech disrupter.In Kenya, half of banks believe their business could be at risk due to the emergence of Fintech, with Fintech companies themselves anticipating they could capture two third o...

There’s a consensus that data drives everything in Africa today . No shortage of as it’s being produced at astronomical speed from images, video, tweets and GPS signals.More than 85 percent of data today available in Africa has been created through smartphone. Africa has an enormous amount of information within reach it needs to be harnessed better for the benefit of human development. It will help governments make better decisions and deliver services.  While data is often considered the starting point for any statistical analysis , am one of those who believes that the starting point should be planning the data collection itself.  Effort at this stage is always rewarded from lower costs, more powerful analysis and the assurance that it is likely to succeed.  Conversely, mistakes at this stage can be difficult, expensive or even impossible to recover from.  Proper planning ensures that the right data is collected, that it is complete and that it is sufficient ...

Recently I spent time reading research about Africa’s literacy in both traditional and digital levels.  While African countries are working toward improving literacy, both the ability to read, write and do simple arithmetic as well as focusing on digital literacy. It is interesting to read because the African educational system are different, in terms of size and homogeneity.In fact, there is no common educational system in the whole of Africa as each country implements its own, which means there are 54 different educational systems.I would imagine that if every country in Africa was committed to the improvement of education, the continent’s educational system would collectively get better, but this will not work. The reality is some African countries like South Africa, Botswana have managed to transform their poor education systems thanks to their economies. Literacy important to Africa because knowledge has always been associated with influence, power and economic success . And ...

Experts define big data as collection and analysis of huge unrelated data sources  with the plan of deriving meaningful business insights . From my knowledge, there's no agreement on exactly what it represents but that hasn’t stopped Nigerian companies to spend tens of millions of dollars on big data and some have gone ahead to claim good returns.  Big data is not only massive volume but also has the capability to produce real-time updates and complex sources, types and categories . In short, big data presents a broader and more complex depiction of reality, which is difficult to reach through conventional surveys. Like tech companies have discovered in Abuja and Lagos, there will be no people who will rely on surveys as primary data sources going forward. We all know how surveys are expensive, time consuming and inaccurate as was the case with Brexit and US elections. This is where big data comes in and Nigerian companies are leading the way in Africa.I do know how a number ...

African financial services regulators are releasing regulations on financial technology well known as fintech , which stipulates rules in the provision of lending services based on information technology.For the past five years, technology and financial services in Africa have been intertwined and the arrival of the word fintech into the popular lexicon seems puzzling to many in the industry. This fintech based lending  will not only play an important role in supporting the financial inclusion program  that African governments have recently been promoting, but will also become an important alternative for unbankable individuals and micro, small and medium enterprises to access funds to start and develop their businesses. According to data in your blogger’s possession, only 15 percent of Africans have access to banking services and merely 5 percent borrow from formal financial institutions. While there are almost 100 million small and medium enterprises spread across the conti...

Ugandan  economy is driven by SMEs and among them are manufacturers who are a priority economic sector  for Uganda to promote inclusive growth. According to data available, there are more than 10,000 manufacturing units in Uganda that can be categorised as micro and small enterprises.These small businesses are an important  source of employment and contribute significantly to the national output .However, small enterprises often find it difficult to access finance from banks and other formal financial institutions.Many of them are unable to provide collateral to secure loans, procedures are too complex for them, or the administrative cost of serving them is too high for banks to consider them as a profitable market.Even Uganda’s most successful companies have their share of cash flow troubles, especially during growth phases.As we all know, profits and cash flow are not the same thing. You can have a profitable business on paper and not have a dollar in the bank.In some ...