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In a digital age, Internet is as indispensable as electricity simply because it could, and often does, turn out to hold solutions to some of the challenges we grapple with

Delta Milayo Ndou
#digitaldialogue

One of the recurring conversations I get sucked into pertains to my stance that Internet is an indispensable resource, therefore its affordability as well as accessibility should occupy a prominent place in our list of national priorities.This is an assertion that admittedly derives from a place and position of privilege given that many Zimbabweans struggle to make ends meet, hence, for them, Internet access is an ivory-tower concern that is detached from the more pressing matter of putting food on the table.

I do concede that when weighed against other urgent and dire realities such as the typhoid outbreak, rampant corruption, the high unemployment rate, the harsh economic climate, the shrinkage of disposable incomes, the shortage of resources in critical sectors like health, and the overall decline in the standard of living — an appeal to prioritise Internet is somewhat elitist.

However, I believe that technology-driven solutions can aid in overcoming some of the pressing matters that preoccupy the national outlook and as such, continually deferring the widespread adoption of Internet enabled services, products and innovations on the basis that we have “more urgent” things to attend to, is short-sightedness.

In one discussion, I used electricity to underscore the importance of Internet and the place I feel Internet access should assume in our lives and in the pursuit of attaining national objectives. No one can argue against the value that electricity brings to the nation or dispute its ability to enhance the quality of living people can enjoy. The proof of it is evident in how central electricity is to how we live, work, play, dream, innovate and develop as a nation.

I doubt that anyone still needs to be persuaded of the necessity and indispensability of electric power, yet many still need to be persuaded of the indispensability of Internet in a digital age.

Why the “let us eradicate poverty first” argument is flawed

If we want to wait until we have eradicated poverty, reduced unemployment, ended the scourge of corruption, fully resourced critical sectors like health and education, tarred every road and gotten safe water gushing out from every tap — if we want to wait until we have accomplished all this before getting around to harnessing the opportunities that the Internet presents — we might wait forever.

Deferment is not the answer, rather taking time to ascertain how technologies, innovations and digital tools work can help solve the challenges we face is. I imagine when electricity was first introduced, there was poverty and there were other more arguably immediate challenges that competed for people’s attention and occupied national prominence.

I imagine that at the time when widespread electrification was being mooted, someone somewhere argued for the deferment of the electrification project on the basis that there were far more important things to attend to like starvation and healthcare and a whole host of more urgent issues of that era. It is obvious that when pitted against starvation, poverty and disease any advancement pertaining to Internet will be easy to dismiss and defer in the name of “we have more urgent problems”.

However, in a digital age, Internet is as indispensable as electricity simply because it could, and often does, turn out to hold solutions to some of the challenges we grapple with.

Nowhere is this more evident than in sectors such as banking where remote transacting options are available to clients, communications sector where knowledge is available at the click of a mouse and endeavours in revenue collection facilitated by online payment solutions that have seen entities like ZESA (whose clients have owed it close to a billion dollars in recent years) reducing the debt by decentralising the sale of electricity.

The ZESA story is an interesting case study on how online payment solutions and mobile money have boosted the parastatal’s prepaid token vending by banks, retail outlets, post offices and even ordinary individuals who have harnessed technology to ensure a steady revenue stream for themselves and ultimately for the parastatal. It often seems as though ZESA doesn’t even have to lift a finger anymore to sell its product, because there are so many entities willing to take up prepaid token vending.

I believe similar successes can be replicated in other industries if their approach to harnessing Internet opportunities and technology-driven solutions is not one of deferment informed by the “let us eradicate poverty first”type of reasoning.

Captains of industry and business leaders need to seriously consider technology as a central component to achieving their goals and not as something that can be deferred until a more convenient time presents itself. The time is now and the rapidity of digital transformations means business models have to adopt and adapt to technology swiftly.

Doors that know you’re coming

The other day I came across an amusing quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson who wrote “#WhenIWasYourAge: We had to open all doors by ourselves. None of them knew we were coming”.

We live in an age when doors know we are coming and automatically open for us to walk through, we live in an age when taps know we want to wash our hands and automatically open the water for us, we live in an age where rooms know we have entered them and automatically switch on the lights and we live in an age where toilet seats can sense when we stand up and automatically flush themselves.

In short, we live in the age of motion detection technology. In such an age, deferring Internet access and deferring the widespread adoption of new technologies is akin to insisting we don’t really need electricity because our firewood and matches and candles and paraffin stoves get the job done just as nicely.

We also live in an age of wearable technology that can tell us whether our blood pressure is too high, or if we are obese, track our levels of activity, or alert us if we forget our phones somewhere — it is short-sightedness to keep deferring Internet access and the opportunities it can avail.

We live in an age of automation, where cars are capable of sensing their environment and navigating without human input, literally driving themselves — and this is not a world we can prepare ourselves, our nation or our children for without prioritising the Internet and the technology-driven solutions it can offer us.

How long are we going to defer Internet access in the developmental agenda we pursue as a country or even in the pursuit of personal goals we strive for as individuals?

Delta is a digital expert and advocate for technology-driven solutions. You can follow her on Twitter: @deltandou