It is sometimes too easy for the world to wrongfully assume that Africa lags too far behind the global cloud innovation revolution happening. That is a fundamentally flawed outlook.
As of 2021, our continent accounted only for USD 1.2 billion of the global public cloud market; it has more than doubled in the past three years and continues to grow exponentially year on year. Soon, Africa will be among the world’s leading innovators, and countries like Kenya will be at the forefront.
It has been inspiring to witness first-hand the continued growth of Kenya’s tech sector. Ongoing expansion and data infrastructure improvement are critical in pushing national economic growth beyond expectations.
As of March 2022, total data and internet subscriptions in Kenya surpassed 46 million, according to a recent Communications Authority of Kenya report. This equates to 93.9 per cent of the Kenyan population compared to 31.4 per cent that was connected in 2013. The pandemic only intensified this growth as many businesses adopted remote working methods – calling for more adept cloud adoption strategies.
In addition to the cloud, the digital revolution also led to the creation of new skills in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data and mobile robotics.
It would not be surprising to see 2022 become the year many African industries experience a massive surge in cloud solutions. This is already driven by the impetus of digital transformation strategies across the board and a need to gain a competitive advantage in a new normal.
The reality of Africa’s historical low economic growth is the very reason that the continent is ideally suited for the speedy adoption of cloud technology. As Kenya, and the rest of Africa, look towards economic recovery and growth, the cloud is the answer to cutting costs and increasing efficiencies as businesses move away from the requirement of hardware and installation.
But this doesn’t happen overnight, and it certainly doesn’t happen alone.
This article is written by Liquid Intelligent Executive Head, Cloud & Cyber Security Kenya Richard Muthua.
Read also; Kenyan Firms Spend 38% More on Cloud and ERP Services in Search of Efficiency.
