African states need resilience as 4IR steps up

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has ushered in a new economy and a new form of globalisation, both of which demand new forms of governance to safeguard the public good, according to the World Economic Forum’s
Klaus Schwab.

Most companies can’t afford to sit back on their laurels. “Many of the companies that have failed to innovate, including companies such as video rental company Blockbusters, have ceased to exist in recent years. The cost of failing to innovate can be substantially higher than the cost of innovating,” says Zamani Ngidi, client manager of Cyber Solutions at professional services firm Aon.

However, amid all the hype surrounding 4IR and its disruptive digital technologies there is potential risk. As companies around the world transform digitally, data breaches are becoming increasingly more prevalent.

“While the technology is being rolled out an exponential rate, infrastructural support and safeguards seem to be lagging behind, leaving Africa, in particular, exposed,” says Ngidi, adding that to mitigate against these breaches, African states need to become more cyber resilient.

He concedes that innovation comes with risk. As such, businesses need to understand the associated costs not only with a lack of innovation, but innovating without appropriately understanding the cost of the associated risks. Globally, cyber losses are predicted to reach $6-trillion (R103,9-trillion) annually by 2021.

“Cyber resilience is about protecting against these risks,” says Ngidi. “It’s a business enabler, key to sustainability and ultimately focal to any strategic objective that comes with digitalisation.”

There is no question that, potentially, 4IR has commercial benefits for the continent — particularly once these commercial efforts are taken to a global stage. But to achieve this requires that companies better protect data and keep it safe from unauthorised access. The challenge in Africa is more than half of its 54 countries have no data protection or privacy laws in place.

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