By: Thomas Alberto
Africa-Press – Angola. Since the beginning of the transformation of the world, we have lived through several eras! Among them the cave era, electricity, aviation, fast food, fashion, automobiles…, we currently live in the digital era. After all, what is an era?
An era is a notable time in which a new order of things is established. In which its use in context is indispensable.
This same era provides sustainable economic, financial and social development for the country.
In this specific case, the digital era, almost everything we do is through these tools that are divided between software and hardware, where one is useless without the other.
Hardware: smartphone, tablet and computers.
Software: websites and applications.
It is in fact in these two elements where everything happens, from production, distribution and consumption.
This new era has transformed our smartphones, tablets and computers into work tools. The ease of access and use of the applications and websites at our disposal gives us the feeling that digital is very easy and economical! The accumulation of users on Angolan platforms, or those based in Angola, which is a process acquired over time and with specific functionalities that generate dependence on use, continues to be a challenge that is not being taken seriously.
In order not to be overtaken by the era, countries were forced to adapt. Instead of focusing on the two elements, for convenience and due to the complexity of gathering users, the easiest thing was attacked. But it is in the most difficult and complex, where the economic, financial and social secret lies, so as not to exclude any social stratum that has one of these pieces of equipment that are today work tools.
In this era, and as in any era that has existed or exists, those who do not produce, buy. In other words, those who do not profit, spend.
In the digital age, where both hardware (smartphones, tablets and computers) and software (websites and applications) are available to millions of people, if the service that is consumed locally on a large scale is not also produced and distributed locally, this leads to economic and financial losses in foreign currency and commercial digital exclusion. Because when a service is provided by platforms located outside Angola, the payment currency is in foreign currency.
I don’t know if we have enough currency to pay for these essential digital services that Angolans will use and will use in the future.
The digital era began in the 1950s and 1970s, and in Angola, internet access was recorded around 1996.
Over the last 5 years, the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication and others, due to the transversality of the digital era, have received funds from the OGE. In addition to these funds, they have also received investments and donations from other public and private institutions.
To this day, we do not know of any Angolan digital platform providing digital services that is known to at least 10% of the more than 11,000,000 internet users in Angola. This sector has everything to succeed, because digital platforms located outside Angola provide these services in Angolan space in a virtual way, where payment is made in foreign currency through a Visa card. What was supposed to be a solution has become yet another economic and financial problem in foreign currency, and a social one.
Everything we know in Angola are pages or accounts that are within digital platforms that are not located in Angola, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, that is, we are still distributors of these platforms, and we live in total dependence on them.
Because digital platforms located outside Angola provide these services on a large scale, and payment for requesting services is made in foreign currency using a Visa card, those who do not have a Visa card are excluded from using their work tool (smartphone, tablet or computer) in order to have sustainable employment or self-employment.
In other parts of the world where competence is more important than convenience, the digital sector is in fact an industry that produces hardware and provides software services that drive the economy, finances, generates taxes, jobs, self-employment and is a source of national pride. Whereas here in Angola it represents economic and financial losses in foreign currency, and some individual gains, because it is seen only as a subsistence business.
Here in our country, if the issue is not in the Minister’s interest, nothing will be done. The entire ecosystem, the people and the State are held hostage by the understanding of a single person, who does not solve the problem with all the means and resources at his disposal, and at the same time prevents those who are capable of contributing, leading people to believe that the limit of knowledge and execution are their beliefs. The progress of the country and of millions of people is once again delayed because of a single person, the minister.
Digital era, a solution that turned into economic and financial problems in foreign exchange, and commercial digital exclusion, 28 years later more than 11,000,000 internet users, and digital continues to be a subsistence business.
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