If there is a buzz word that emerged over the last year, it would be "digitisation”. Google trends show that once the pandemic started in 2020, there was an immediate 25% increase in the number of searches on "how to go digital”. We knew this term, but I relate with those who say that they have attached a new level of importance to it in the last 12 months.
I vividly remember my early days at MTN Rwanda, where a portion of my day was reserved for the signing of physical documents. The phrase, "Your contract is on the CEO’s desk,” was so commonly used, it was considered an essential part of the contracting process. I marvel at how far we have come since then.
I also think back to our eradication of physical airtime scratch cards from the market in February 2020. These cards had been in use since MTN launched in Rwanda in 1998. Having 100% of our airtime sold electronically was a long-term ambition which turned into an imperative in the wake of the pandemic. As a business, like many others, we have learned many lessons and have come a long way on our digital transformation journey since then.
The statistics on the digital transformation strides we are making worldwide, are staggering. According to a study by the global consulting firm, McKinsey & Co, digital offerings have on average leapfrogged seven years of progress within a matter of months. This implies that we are in phase of transformation that would only have been experienced in 2027, had things remained business-as-usual. Reading this, was a major call to action for me. We can actually live in the future, maybe even bring it forward, if we stretch ourselves and our capabilities to do more, create more and digitize more.
I am sure many of us have a story about how we have become more time efficient by shopping online. In my case, I would sit down every Saturday to write down a shopping list, then drive to the market, forget the list in the car, walk down the aisles trying to remember what was on the list, purchase things and leave the shop satisfied, only to get to the car to rediscover a whole host of essentials I had skipped from the said list! End to end, this process would easily take 3 hours of my Saturday morning. I have since cut down this shopping time to mere minutes with the use of Tuma250 and VubaVuba. I give these two as examples of portals I use frequently, but I am certain there are many others in Rwanda. It must be said, the explosion in the e-commerce space in Rwanda is nothing short of remarkable.
I am also certain that companies such as these went through their own digital transformation journeys leveraging technology for payments, supply chain optimization and strategic partnerships.
Going digital however, does not simply mean looking for ways for technology to replace traditional practices and processes, it is in fact using technology to do things differently, thus achieving greater efficiencies, reducing costs and in most recent times, keeping people safe. MIT’s George Westerman’s quote puts it quite aptly, "When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”
In this current Covid-19 season, my mind was blown at the announcement of the use of robots at the Kanyinya Covid-19 treatment centre in Kigali. These robots are doing routine functions like monitoring patient temperatures and vitals, as well as conveying video messages between doctors and patients. This has reduced the amount of interaction between health workers and Covid-19 patients, in turn reducing the risk of transmission.
Digital transformation is so diverse in its various applications and according to technology leader Ericsson, is an accelerator for post-Covid-19 economic recovery. If this is true, the big challenge and opportunity is how we can ensure Rwandan businesses, especially SMEs that make up the backbone of our economy, take advantage of these digital winds of change. As the old adage goes "When an entrepreneur succeeds, the whole economy smiles”.
"How do I get support from organisations that are established and ahead in the digital transformational journey?” is a question I have received from many young entrepreneurs. It is perhaps a question that I would like to turn into a call to action. It is Rwanda’s ambition to become a digital economy by 2024 and going by the strides made in 2020 this is definitely achievable. This will in part be made possible by established organisations looking inward to digitise within themselves but even more importantly looking outward to lend the helping-digitisation hand to upcoming businesses too.
At MTN Rwanda, the commitment to look outward, is one we will continue to reaffirm. We kicked off 2021 with the launch of the MTN Yolo Hackathon that attracted over 200 great ideas from young entrepreneurs. To be that steppingstone, we will explore possible partnerships with the Top 3 contenders. This and several other similar initiatives shall run in the course of 2021, with the hope that this will contribute to furthering the overall digital agenda.
I will end this piece with some food for thought; going digital is not the exclusive domain of the tech industry, it is a rising tide that can lift all boats. An upcoming entrepreneur in the agriculture or energy sectors can just as easily use digital as a springboard to the next level. Tech knows no industry, geography, age nor gender. My 8-year-old son recently asked me to enrol him into a coding class! The growth in opportunities for our young people, boys, girls, men and women alike, has been remarkable over the years. To commemorate women’s month in March, perhaps I will do a piece on the role technology has played in women’s empowerment.
The bottom line is that we should be proud of how far we have come but cannot afford to lose sight of the need to keep building on those gains to achieve an equitable business environment where both established and budding players can make their mark.
The writer is the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Rwanda