…at maiden RBGH-B&FT Digital Conference
Industry leaders in finance, established and emerging technologies as well as strategy, will today converge in Accra for the maiden edition of the Republic Bank Ghana (RBGH) – Business and Financial Times (B&FT) Digital Conference, to offer insight into how stakeholders, particularly business owners and their financiers, can harness the recent gains from increased digitisation and digitilisation
Under the theme, ‘Digitisation, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Things: The Impact and Immense Opportunities for Ghanaian Businesses’, the maiden edition of the one-day conference, which is jointly organised by Republic Bank and B&FT, promises thought-provoking and engaging discussions which would have a bearing on business strategies and national policy direction.
Nations the world over, especially developing nations that lag in technology implementation, have been tasked to prepare for a period of deep and rapid technological change that will profoundly affect markets and societies; with an increased focus on science, technology, and innovation policies appropriate to their development stage and economic, social, and environmental conditions.
This will require strengthening and aligning science, technology, and innovation systems and industrial policies to build digital skills among the workforce.
Despite the tremendous potential for sustainable development from recent happenings with frontier technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology, amongst others, there remains the risk of increasing existing inequalities by exacerbating and creating new digital divides between the technology haves and have-nots.
However, with the ongoing pandemic set to have permanent effects on consumer behavior and how factors of production interact, it behooves Ghanaian businesses to explore the inherent opportunities that digitization presents especially for the future of technology and businesses.
To this end, “How can businesses apply existing and emerging technologies to their operations?”; “What are the barriers to wider adoption of technological solutions?”; “What potential pitfalls, if any, should they be aware of?”; “Should business owners look to In-house solutions or outsource?”; “How can the large informal sector benefit from these opportunities?”; “Are we trading our privacy for convenience?”; “What will be the consequence for failing to adjust?”. These and many more questions would be extensively tacked at the conference.
The gender-balanced panel of experts tasked with unbundling these pertinent questions include Chief Executive at IntelPro, Leonida Mutuku; Futurist and CEO of Reset Global People, Kwame A.A. Opoku; and Head of Technology and Business Systems at Republic Bank, Samuel Darkuah. Others are the CEO of Ghana Code Club, Ernestina Appiah, and Chief Executive at Hacklab Foundation, Foster Awintiti Akugri. An address shall be delivered by Farid Antar, Managing Director of Republic Bank.
