Right from when I had the opportunity of operating my mother’s phone at the age of 7, I would say my experience with technology started till the present. However, there’s a particular experience that surpasses all, my Nebulizer experience.  I was diagnosed with acute asthma when I was little, and I’ve always been only familiar with inhalers, ventolin tablets, and sometimes IV treatments.

I went to school on a particular day and had an attack leading to my being rushed to the hospital from school. I got to the hospital and thought I was going to be given an IV treatment that tends to be slow and sometimes painful if all care isn’t put into the insertion of the syringe into my vein.

I was surprised to be taken to a different room and told to sit upright while a pipe was passed into my nostrils in the form of a mask. I felt the release of gas into my nostrils after I had sat properly and five minutes into the release of the gas I felt some sort of instant relief when all I had to do was just breathe in and out.

An inhaler takes about 20 minutes to relieve an asthma patient, and it also has straight-away relief if it’s a salbutamol inhaler while an IV, although effective, takes longer time because it should not be rushed.

I thought to myself how someone or some group of people sat and came up with the development of the weird-looking box. The machine brought an instant relief to me and I couldn’t help but ask what it was on that day.

A Nebulizer – what I later researched it to be, is my beautiful experience of tech in my continent, Africa.

Technological Innovation And Diffusion

I view technology in Africa in my opinion has made day to day activities of man easier. I cannot imagine myself in the 21st century, still picking wood to make a fire to cook. Maybe some people still do, at least it would not be because there are no options. I would say, “It made life easier”.

Pros

Generally speaking, technology being introduced to Africa came with both its advantages and disadvantages. The pros that have been discovered so far based on the survey, we cannot help but be grateful for.

African states by now would have still depended solely on traditional ways of communication, transportation, etc. Tech has made communication easier, compared to years ago whereby the utmost reliance on Face – to – Face communication or exchange of information is reduced and this has been replaced with cell phones, the use of apps as means of communication, etc.

In addition, there is now little/ lesser reliance on animals like horses, and camels for transportation and also, traditional boats for waterways. On the bright side, bicycles, cars, and airplanes now serve as reliable and faster means of transportation.

It was pretty difficult for information to be accessed by people way before technology came into existence. Libraries were scarce but in recent years, one can boast of E- libraries at half everyone’s disposal, making it easier to have access to further information, education, and more learning while also reducing the rate of illiteracy amongst many, compared to years ago.

Not to mention, the fate of healthcare in African countries would have looked like what? Imagine us with the fast pace of technology in the world today, still relying on just herbs and also the inappropriate measurements of concoctions without adequate access to modern healthcare facilities that made their way to individual countries with the help of Technology.

With the help of technology in central Africa and other regions, there is now more developed infrastructure such as roads, electricity, water supply, etc.

Cons

In contrast to the above opinion, technology in many African countries can also lead to inequality amongst high-income individuals in the continent and low, thereby not giving the latter the room of gaining the advantages technology has to offer.

Compared to other continents like Europe and Asia, some African countries are still lagging due to limited infrastructure but compared to how we started, I can proudly say Technology in the African continent has been a blessing rather than a curse.

Who would’ve thought that the vast majority of schools in African countries, could make use of online- learning during the Covid-19 pandemic?

2-3 years ago before the pandemic outbreak, I would have said alongside fellow Africans that depending on online classes didn’t seem like something we could pull off here in African nations. But it did happen.

What About The Future Of Tech In Africa?

The future of Technology in Africa lies now. This has a lot to do with how well each individual (African) is being trained from the rest. There should be a link between the governments of respective regions and expertise in tech space so they see to it that this training is made available to a large number of people.

It has been projected that the majority of work by 2030 would be digital and would require technological skills. The future of tech in Africa would be a beauty to behold, putting in check that more digital skills are being gotten and also we see the strong need to drive innovations. However, innovation must not be without working strategies.

Top 10 Tech Companies In Africa

Most African countries are now a base for Top Tech companies. However, it seems these companies take a particular interest in Nigeria, making it the 3rd most technologically advanced country in the world.

1. Jumia in (West Africa), is an online shopping site that covers logistics and saves people the stress of shopping physically.
2. Safaricom in Kenya (eastern Africa), is a telecommunications company.
3. Interswitch
4. Cellulant
5. Andela
6. Flutter wave (Nigeria)
7. Paystack
8. Ushahidi (Kenya)
9. Twiga Foods (Kenya)
10. Rectron holdings in Southern Africa.

Also, it’s no news that Big tech companies like Google, Netflix, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple have all opened their branches here in Africa and most of them have chosen Nigeria as their sites.

My Experience With A SaaS Product As A Nigerian- Zoom

This would make me travel back 3 years to when the Covid-19 pandemic happened and there was a shutdown everywhere that affected lives generally including learning.

My school after waiting for months and the situation seemed to not be taking any positive turn had to resort to Zoom, to conduct online classes. It made learning quite easy with its features like screen sharing, chat, and recording.

The sweetest part of my SaaS product experience, Zoom, was how we could successfully hold our classes right from our respective houses and could all learn. Even though data connection at times was a barrier to contend with, I’d still boldly say it was a sweet experience for me.

What Will Be The Fate Of Other Sectors Like Agriculture When Tech Takes Over?

Simply put, the fate of other sectors can be of both positive and negative impacts. On the bright side, productivity and efficiency will increase in a sector like Agriculture. With the aid of mechanization, much work will be executed in less time with lesser human drudgery and interference, which can lead to a high level of unemployment services.

Labor displacement, especially with the day-to-day use of robotics, and AIs. Some certain tasks and techniques previously used to carry out these tasks will no longer need the help of humans which would lead to the rate of unemployment getting doubled compared to now.

This would only not happen if Agriculturists/ Farmers are willing to adopt digital revolution/innovation to fit into new roles in the industry. Manual labor will be reduced and more users will be able to operate and manage Technology.

Also checking from the Economies of the Continent’s view, it’d increase production rate and also generate more opportunities in the Agric Tech sector giving rise to more employment opportunities.

If by now, there is already a machine that can detect when a female animal is on heat and helps to know when the best time to mate with the animal is regardless of climate change, I’m certain the fate of Agriculture in this continent when Tech takes over would be a sweet one in terms of making life easier and bringing about more productivity.

However, one has to put into consideration the acquisition of digital skills to help make the combination of Agriculture and Tech a very sweet one.

Final Thought

Given the above, technology came into existence in a gradual order, and might not have happened at a specific time in a specific place altogether but it does have its way of circulating. Even though Africa in the Tech space isn’t fully there – yet! Compared to way back, we’re moving closer to being better for now when the name Africa is mentioned, we’ll not be seen as just there.