Kudzanai Sharara in Cape Town, South Africa
Panellists at the CEO Africa Annual Roundtable have called on African business leaders to stop playing catch-up on artificial intelligence and instead build continent-wide ecosystems, arguing that the biggest opportunities lie between companies rather than within them.
Speaking during the closing remarks of the panel “AI, Fintech, and Productivity: Transforming African Economies”, Leleti Gachago, Strategic Business Development Officer at Future Trends Group, said businesses did not need to spend millions on AI tools immediately. They should first identify where they are losing time, money or opportunity, quantify it, and then ask whether AI can change that number.
“Identify what part of your business where you’re losing time, you’re losing money or opportunity. Put a number on it, then ask whether AI can actually change that number. And if you can, you can build the capability around it,” Ms Gachago said.
She then issued a direct challenge to the chief executives in the room. “Some of the biggest opportunities are going to sit across and between companies. Between banks and fintech. Between investment and infrastructure development,” she said. “And some problems are just simply too big for one organisation to solve alone.”
Ms Gachago said the next phase of leadership is not merely to digitise one’s own organisation, but to help build the ecosystem around AI for Africa.
Samuelle Dimairho, Group CEO of Aura Group, said the focus should be on securing marginal gains across Africa’s $1.4 trillion economy by changing how businesses innovate, grow and create wealth. He cited mobile money as an example of African-led innovation that has transformed payments across the continent.
Mr Dimairho said businesses should not attempt to reinvent everything from scratch, but should build on existing foundations while thinking ahead. “For a long time we’re just thinking of catching up, but we’re not thinking of how can we get ahead so that we can also export products and services,” he said.
He urged delegates to use the technologies available to make their businesses more efficient, while stressing the greater task of positioning African entities, countries and the continent at the forefront of the future.
Tonderai Kachecha, Founder and Director of Northlea Consulting Limited, said AI could help lenders extend credit to people who lack traditional collateral by analysing alternative data such as mobile money records and statements.
He described a scenario in which a lender loads a document and can see that an individual earns $2,000 a month selling goods on the street, along with their expenses. “So we can actually lend them this much money without putting the risk of the business, because we actually know that this person — even though they don’t have security, they don’t have a basic [bank account] — they actually can be connected,” Mr Kachecha said.
Mr Kachecha said each business must examine what such tools mean for its own operations, adding that the business analysis must come first. “You know your business better than I would,” he said. “I’ll start the conversation and then the technology comes in after you’ve already done the analysis. ”
Earlier in the panel, Mr Kachecha had called for problem-led, sustainable solutions, citing an example in which shortening a company’s collection cycle from 35 days to 31 days releases cash flow and reduces interest costs. He said such solutions would be sustainable because the benefit would be visible on the bottom line.
The panel formed part of the CEO Africa Annual Roundtable, which runs from 6 to 10 October under the theme “The Future of Africa: Innovate, Trade and Grow”.
