E-Business
Getting Behind AI Growth in Africa
The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) dominated discussions at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos – with delegates touching on everything from ethics to democratization and workforce re-skilling.
While AI is primed to be the driving force of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, its widespread acceptance and adoption among businesses is still in early stages.
The year 2018 was an important one in shifting current perceptions around AI, demonstrating it as a technology that is here to augment human capabilities, not replace them, and to benefit the speed and scale of any organization, large or small.
These conversations have carried weight. In just four years, the number of global organizations deploying AI has increased by 270 percent.
In Africa, the momentum is similar, and continues to grow as access to high quality broadband and cloud computing improves. Organizations are recognizing AI’s ability to help with some of the continent’s most pervasive problems, from reducing poverty to improving healthcare and enhancing crop yields to feed a growing population.
Microsoft, through initiatives such as 4Afrika, has its sights set on making AI available to everyone on the continent, in line with our global mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
We are partnering with forward-thinking policy makers, innovative startups, technology partners, civil society groups and stakeholders to promote the growth of a vibrant AI ecosystem in Africa – one that enables inclusive growth and provides a clear and trusted path to digital transformation.
Promoting innovation with AI
Many of our local partners, including SMEs and startups, have already begun their AI journeys. Nigerian startup, MyMusic, has experimented with chatbots to help users discover new local music. And fintech startup, MoVAS Group, who we first met in 2016, is now building AI into their credit-scoring algorithms, enabling more unbanked farmers and small business owners to access loans the first time.
In the finance industry, 66 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is listed as unbanked. The proliferation of mobile banking across the continent has increased financial inclusion, and AI powered intelligent applications are now taking this further.
AI can capture and crunch large volumes of non-traditional data, such as mobile wallet transactions, that enable service providers to make automated loan decisions to new customers, with no previous financial track records, in seconds.
Across the Middle East and Africa, a projected $28.3 million will be spent on developing AI solutions in the financial sector – and organisations are ramping up efforts to ensure young developers are well equipped for the task.
At the recent AI Bootcamp, hosted by Data Science Nigeria and sponsored by Microsoft, for example, local developers were upskilled in using deep learning concepts to drive financial inclusion.
Developing this kind of AI capacity in Africa is essential, not only to ensure our 200 million-strong youth population is equipped for jobs of the future, but also to ensure local AI systems themselves are unbiased and inclusive.
Developing the right skills and data sets
Without the skills to build homegrown applications, organizations are likely to import machine-learning algorithms developed elsewhere, which are trained on biased data sets that lack local context. This could have severe consequences in industries like healthcare.
What Africa needs is a richer pool of local data, coupled with AI applications that are built by skilled local teams with diverse demographic, gender, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. To achieve this, outdated processes need to be digitised, education systems need to adapt quickly, and digital literacy programmes need to be more far-reaching.
Local organisations are making good headway. The Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) in South Africa recently collaborated with Microsoft to build a first-for-Africa technology platform on Azure, which is enhancing the storage and processing of African genomic datasets. With this data and computing power, the CPGR is running more ground-breaking biomedical research in local disease development and prevention.
In Malawi, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has opened a Microsoft AppFactory at the Dzaleka camp, which is bringing skills in coding and data analytics to young refugees and asylum seekers. Applications that have already been created include Smart Mapokezi, which manages schedules for the allocation of food at the refugee camps.
Policies for an AI-enabled future
As AI opens up new frontiers for economic and social transformation, policy makers will need to ensure that this new data-driven ecosystem is governed by a strong code of ethics. We need to ensure that ethical AI systems are reliable, secure, private, transparent, accountable and beneficial to all.
Across Africa, Microsoft is supporting government bodies in developing necessary policy frameworks. Initiatives such as the Microsoft Policy Innovation Centre at Strathmore University in Kenya are providing forums to discuss policy issues surrounding the digital transformation of industries and countries.
Together with Access Partnership, we also recently commissioned a white paper on the implications of AI in Africa, which will be presented to South African Government delegates in March, during an event dedicated to addressing AI policy advancements.
Putting humans at the center
Through Microsoft’s various programs, from skills development initiatives to growing the startup ecosystem, we are working to help make an AI-enabled future in Africa a reality.
In every AI endeavor, our goal is to augment and amplify human ingenuity, accelerate economic and social prosperity. African innovators revolutionized the way mobile technology is used, and we look forward to seeing what they’ll do next with AI.
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has approved N242.8m for the procurement of a Microsoft 365 licence for its Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) as part of efforts to digitise the service’s operations.
Mr Michael Ango, acting executive chairman of FCT-IRS, disclosed this after the FCT Executive Committee meeting chaired by Mr Nyesom Wike, the minister of FCTA, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ango said that the FCTA was making significant investments in technology to enhance revenue generation and collection.
“So, this is also one of those investments in technology that the FCT is undertaking.
“The licence, if procured, will enhance our ability to move most of our manual processes into automated processes.
“It will enhance our ability to communicate within our offices,” he said.
The executive chairman added that the move would also reduce the use of paper and ensure better record-keeping through the storage of information and documents in the cloud.
According to him, “The licence will essentially enhance our operations and assist us in generating revenue for the development of the FCT under Wike’s leadership.”
Rack Centre, West Africa’s Tier III Carrier and Cloud neutral data centre, has welcomed Olla Cloud Service, a new private cloud service by Olla Systems Limited, a leading provider of innovative technology solutions, to its facility.
Hosting at Rack Centre, Olla Cloud Service runs on a state-of-the-art, cloud-enabled infrastructure for enterprise applications across diverse platforms, including mission critical application, web applications as well as containerised applications using Kubernetes.
Lars Johannisson, CEO, Rack Centre, welcoming Olla Systems, noted that the partnership with Olla Systems Limited would reflect the company’s commitment to providing African businesses with high- quality cloud computing services.
He noted that Olla Systems would enjoy Rack Centre’s 13.5MW data centre campus facility, designed to meet the highest international standards and offering scalable solutions to Hyperscalers, Enterprises, and Cloud service providers.
As part of its commitment to sustainability, the facility is equipped with energy-efficient systems, advanced cooling technologies to mitigate environmental impact and an optimally-designed feature to handle high-density workloads with precision.
According to Johannisson, “With Olla Cloud Service hosting at Rack Centre, clients will experience fast performance and low latency, enabling businesses in Africa to access world-class cloud computing services within a secure and compliant local infrastructure.”
Also speaking, Olusola Adenuga, chief executive officer, Olla Systems Limited, expressed enthusiasm about hosting at Rack Centre, noting that Olla Cloud remains a groundbreaking private cloud solution for businesses.
While highlighting the benefits of the partnership between Rack Centre and Olla Systems, Adenuga disclosed that “subscribing to Olla Cloud Service is cost-effective to customers because of its local currency payment advantage.”
She also noted that the partnership between the duo, provides businesses the opportunity to meet regulatory requirements of data residency, while enjoying world-class infrastructure as a service (IaaS) locally.
“Other benefits of hosting with Olla Cloud include: 24/7 support, unparalleled performance, scalability and agility.” she added.
A user’s messaging app account might be of interest not only to jealous spouses and nosy coworkers, but also to cybercriminals.
Stolen WhatsApp accounts are used for various types of criminal activity, ranging from spam distribution to sophisticated scam schemes.
Cybercriminals constantly look for WhatsApp accounts and use various methods to gain access to them.
There are two ways cybercriminals can gain control of a WhatsApp account: they can add another device to an existing account using the “Linked devices” feature, or they can re-register the account on their own device as if the user had bought a new phone.
“In the first case, the user continues to use WhatsApp as usual, but the criminals also have access to all recent conversations. In the second case, the user loses access to their personal account.
“When trying to log in, WhatsApp notifies him that the account is already in use on another device, and the attackers can then control the account but not the past conversations.
“Messengers are a private space, as they often contain personal information about our lives and relationships with family and friends. They can also contain information about work and, in some cases, confidential information.
“If you notice any unusual activity, such as receiving replies to messages that you didn’t send, or if your friends complain about strange messages coming from your account, it’s important to take steps to protect your privacy immediately,” comments Seifallah Jedidi, Head of Consumer Channel, META, at Kaspersky.
While you can check instruction on what to do in case a WhatsApp account was already compromised, here are the key steps on how to avoid a WhatsApp account to be hacked:
- Enable two-step verification in WhatsApp and memorise your PIN — it’s not a one-time code. To do this, go to Settings → Account → Two-step verification.
- Never, ever share your PIN or one-time registration codes with anyone. Only scammers ask for these details.
- WhatsApp recently introduced support for passkeys. If you enable this option (Settings → Account → Passkeys), logging in to your account will require biometric authentication, and instead of PIN codes, your smartphone will store a long cryptographic key. This is a very secure option, but it may not be convenient if you frequently change devices and switch between Android and iOS.
- Set up a backup email address for account recovery: Settings → Account → Email address.
- If you’ve already added an email address, log in to your email account and change your password to a strong, unique one. To store it securely, use a password manager, such as Kaspersky Password Manager.
- Enable two-factor authentication for your email account.
- Make sure you haven’t fallen victim to a SIM swap scam. Contact your mobile carrier — preferably in person — and verify that no duplicate SIM cards have recently been issued for your number. Also, make sure there’s no unauthorised call-forwarding set up on your number. Cancel any suspicious changes and ask the staff about additional security measures for your SIM card. These may include prohibiting SIM-related actions without your being present, an extra password required for authentication, or other protections. Available security measures vary significantly by country and mobile carrier.
Any security measures in WhatsApp will be of little use if your smartphone or computer is infected with malware. Therefore, be sure to install comprehensive protection like Kaspersky Premium on all your devices.
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