Mohamadou Diallo: “The CIO Awards have fun revolutionary “made in Africa” options tailored to native wants”

For this version of GITEX Africa in Marrakech, the pan-African tech media Cio Magazine is inaugurating the African CIO Awards, a primary version which celebrates African Administrators of Data Programs (DSI). These distinctions, additionally open to the worldwide African diaspora, purpose to reward CIOs from the private and non-private sector who’ve demonstrated management, innovation and have contributed to the event of the continent. Organized in partnership with GITEX Africa, the Digital Improvement Company, Good Africa, Apebi and Ausim, this initiative marks necessary recognition for CIOs having a significant impression on their organizations and on the event of the Africa. To seek out out extra about this initiative, we met Mohamadou DIALLO, Founding father of CIO Magazine and these Awards. On this interview, he shares his imaginative and prescient, the aims of the African CIO Awards and the significance of recognizing the abilities and contributions of African CIOs in an more and more digital world.

In your opinion, what’s the weight of digital within the growth potential of the African continent?

Digital represents very vital potential within the growth of the continent. In the present day, in some international locations, the telecommunications sector represents as much as 10% of GDP. This weight has elevated considerably through the years, going from lower than 3% within the early 2000s to 10% right now in most African economies. The digital financial system helps all sectors of the financial system in a transversal method and occupies a vital place. Telecommunications operators, for instance, play a significant function not solely within the financial system but in addition in amassing taxes and paying for cellular licenses.

What do you assume makes a very good CIO when main an organization’s digital transformation mission?

To know the function of a CIO, it’s essential to first perceive the extent of their scope of motion. In the present day, the CIO is now not only a price heart however a revenue heart. By digitalizing the corporate, the CIO brings added worth and contributes to the expansion and competitiveness of the corporate. Its function has change into more and more necessary, requiring agility and impression in numerous areas resembling human assets, finance, and manufacturing.

A very good CIO have to be agile and have a very good command of all the firm’s companies to successfully help digital transformation.

The finalists come from massive personal teams or main public establishments. What are the challenges that their CIOs should handle and that extra agile SMEs or start-ups can overcome?

We wish to encourage open innovation to permit massive corporations to combine options developed by start-ups. It’s essential to strengthen analysis and growth (R&D) in Africa, which is commonly underfunded by massive corporations. The improvements of younger start-ups can present related solutions and assist push corporations to develop.

We additionally wish to promote intrapreneurship, which permits staff to develop their very own tasks inside the firm, thus unleashing their creativity and innovation.

You obtained greater than 40 purposes. What had been the standards requested for the tasks tendered?

We regarded for disruptive improvements, notably within the areas of synthetic intelligence and robotics. We had been impressed by the standard of the recordsdata submitted, which confirmed revolutionary “made in Africa” options tailored to native wants. The chosen recordsdata, together with tasks utilizing IoT for livestock administration in battle zones or AI utilized by tens of millions of shoppers, display the potential and ingenuity of African CIOs.

Three out of twelve finalists are ladies. Does this signify the feminine presence in Africa for the place of CIO? Is that this proportion altering?

Though the IT sector has traditionally been dominated by males, we’re seeing increasingly ladies shifting into management positions. In Africa, the proportion of girls in these roles is rising, though it stays decrease than in Europe. Girls engineers are very competent, however reconciling skilled and household life stays a problem. Nonetheless, vital progress is being made, with many ladies occupying ministerial positions in digital transformation, for instance.

What are the long run ambitions for the CIO Awards, notably by way of rising the variety of collaborating international locations?

Certainly, the African CIO Awards purpose to transcend the easy framework of an awards ceremony. They purpose to create a very dynamic ecosystem selling innovation, emulation and the change of excellent practices between friends within the African digital sector. For the subsequent version, we’re planning a roadshow in strategic international locations to boost consciousness amongst CIOs and encourage them to take part within the competitors subsequent yr. One other necessary goal is to incorporate the African diaspora. Many African skills work overseas, and we would like them to have the ability to take part and share their experience with their African counterparts. We additionally wish to encourage younger individuals to take part, by establishing open innovation initiatives to permit startups to collaborate with massive corporations.

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