BY EMEKA AGINAM, in Nairobi, Kenya
The Chief Scientist of IBM Research Africa, Dr.Uyi Stewart has said that African governments are not spending enough money in building Informationand Communication Technology Infrastructure to help Africaleapflog into the information age, which is today’s most valuable commodity.

The Nigerian born scientist who has spent not less than 20 years in software research and product development related to human-computer interaction stated this yesterday while speaking to Nigerian IT Journalists in Nairobi, Kenya, shortly after a tour of IBM research lab situated at the Catholic University, Eastern Africa.

He said that lack of investment in technological knowledge was the reason for the wide disparity between rich and poor nations.

According to him, this gap can be closed if African nations focus on developing an economy that is knowledge and technology based, instead of one that is based on the export of natural resources.

With its Lucy projects in education, healthcare, water, human mobility, financial inclusions among others already in the planning stages, he was optimistic that IBM was set to help Africa make a lot of changes.

He explained that the scientists at the IBM lab chose ‘Lucy’ as the project name in reference to the fossilized remains of an early human ancestors found in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley.

According to him, IBM will continue to engage African continents with various solutions at its research lab while developing technology solutions that are not only appropriate for local market but are commercially sustainable.

“Africa is making money but the amount of money invested in infrastructure is not commensurate. In order to make more money, we need to raise the infrastructure by investing more money. That is the only way to make long range plans to leapfrog into the Information age.

If we do thing right, we can close the gap. Leapfloging is the way out. With IBM solutions on education, health, water, transportation, among others at the research lab, African challenges can be surmounted.

We are bringing all the innovative solutions at the lab in Nigeria. We have solutions to solve traffic issues in Nigeria. We have solutions to solve health issues. We need to develop the eco-system by embracing the cognitive computing by IBM,” he said.

For Africa to move forward, Uyi stated that there was need to adopt e-government strategies that allow citizen participation and solve local problems.

While calling for the implementation of cognitive computing systems for the intelligent interpretation of data in Africa, he said that Africa must digitalize knowledge for the challenges ahead.

IBM’s most prominent example of cognitive computing technology, he said, is Watson, which is an artificially intelligent computer system that answers questions posed in natural language.

A new approach of doing business in Africa, according to him, is through IBM Research Africa opened last year in Kenya to serve the whole of the African region. The goal of the lab is to be the first commercially research lab in Africa to address the grand challenges of Africa through commercially viable innovations that impact the lives of people in the region.