Africa
By Anthony Isibor
KARIM El Ayanoui, Executive President, Policy Center for the New South Rabat, Morocco, says that African countries must find ways to take advantage of its abundant natural resources, huge population, conducive climate, artificial intelligence and technology to be able to assume a prominent position in the new world order.
El Ayanoui made the call as the guest speaker at the 12th Realnews Anniversary held in Lagos on Tuesday, November 19, 2024.
Speaking on the Theme, Africa in World Shifting Geopolitics: Matters Arising on Demography, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Natural Resources, El Ayanoui noted that policymakers in Africa must look again at these megatrends through African glasses, megatrends being climates, demographics, and digitalization, etc. and chart a new growth plan for itself and the continent.
On demographics, El Ayanoui stated that Africa has a multiple dynamics with a teeming young population and that 19 of the top 20 highest fertility rates in countries are in Africa.
“A country like Morocco has a global dynamic. It is aging, as the proportion of over 60 in the population has never been as high as it is today. It is aging, someone over 60 and at the same time, we still have a young population under 30 and we are also affected by the campaign as our skilled workers are being attracted by, I would say, intense policies by advanced economies to attract skilled workers.
“The same goes here in Nigeria and on the continent in general. So, a brain-drained aging population is still a youth that we need to absorb on the labour market.
“Let me tell you that if you take fertility rate, The only one missing is Afghanistan. So, there is, of course, for us here in Africa, a fantastic opportunity because we have a young population. At the same time, it creates, as I said, challenges for some middle-income countries of Africa.
“Aging is already here. There are a couple of others, at the same time, it has to be taken in a place where there is competition for the best brains, the best brains of Nigeria, their labour market is not only in your country, it is in the world. So, you train them at high cost and then they go and say, one day they will return.
“So, it’s a complex issue and it’s a megatrend we have to manage, of course, migration is affecting our relation with the rest of the world, it is affecting our relations, particularly with Europe. In internal domestic policy, it’s a very divisive issue. So, it is something that will stay in the kind of relations and partnerships we have with advanced economies,” he added.
On digitalization/technology, El Ayanoui said that Africa could expect profound transformations and that artificial intelligence is a generic technology like electricity.
According to him, this will affect all sectors of the economy with profound transformations,. “And here, we have to note that Africa is lagging behind in terms of the production of knowledge, its capacity, its companies that are working in quantum computing, cloud computing, GPUs, cables, undersea cables, etc. And this is something that will be in the future linked to innovation.
“If you want to grow, you need higher productivity, you need of course, to innovate.
And that is an enormous challenge, how to integrate technology in public policies, but also simply basic technologies doesn’t have to be the very advanced one to better serve citizens in public policies, in their relation with public services. And that’s something that, you know, some of it is available, we need to make the best of it, it doesn’t have to be produced here on the continent, but in the future it will become, of course, an issue.
“Not to mention biotechnologies and what they mean for us. I don’t know if you’ve been following the NoHo technology, the progress is recently in NoHo technologies. There are very impressive progress being made. Ninety per cent, to give you an idea, I’m not good on that point, but 90 per cent of the world data has been produced over the past two years. We’re collecting today data on everything. Ninety percent over the past two years. That will remain a megatrend for the future, and do we need to think what do we do with these advancements here in our time in our public policy to serve our citizens.”
On the issue of climate, he called for urbanization as Africa is expected to add 1 billion people in cities.
This, he says, calls for urbanization, roads, buildings, managing liquid and solid waste etc
“This is happening in a continent that will see an explosion of its population living on the littoral, particularly in West Africa, Atlantic shores of the continent, with rising sea levels already happening. So that will remain as a structural, dynamic, fundamental challenge in our public policy and it needs to be organized and prepared. Organized and prepared. It’s not easy to organize the growth of a city, but it needs to be met. It’s going to be risky. It has to do with security if you want to control the growth of a city, and it’s going to be costly,” he added.
A.I
Nov. 25, 2024
Tags: KARIM El Ayanoui Realnews12thanniversary
