By: Hertha Ekandjo
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says that Namibia is no longer close to reaching its fourth industrial revolution (4IR).
According to IPPR researcher Rosevitah Ndumbu, for Namibia to reach 4IR, its ICT should be ready and productive.
The 4IR Task Force, established by President Hage Geingob last year and chaired by Unam’s pro-vice-chancellor for Research, Innovation and Development, Anicia Peters, will host the first Namibia 4IR Conference and Expo on Tuesday.
“The country is still has a long way to go in terms of technology and internet access, infrastructure and education, which are the basics of reaching the 4IR,” she told The Villager.
She stated that much groundwork still needs to be done for 4IR talks to be brought to the table.
Ndumbu, in a report released by the IPPR last year, said that the 4IR, which refers to the fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the internet of things (IOT), and other technologies, is already upon many first world countries.
Africa, she said, was still lagging behind other countries, particularly concerning internet and technology access, infrastructure, and education.
“In Namibia, it was reported in 2019 that out of 1 897 government schools across the country, only 590 schools (just over 30 per cent) are connected to the internet,” she said.
She questioned how it would be possible for Namibia’s younger generations to partake in the 4IR when even the basics, such as internet connectivity, are not in place.
According to her report, the World Bank said only 55 per cent of the Namibian population have access to electricity.
Chairperson of the task force, Prof Anicia Peters, says that a national data centre would be vital for the country to have ownership and control over its data. Last November, Peters reported back to Geingob that the task force faced challenges in collecting data. She said, seven months later, these challenges persist.
Peters told The Villager that the 4IR conference and expo will look at what other challenges the task force is facing and what solutions they can come up with.
“This is where we are actually inviting the public to come and talk to us about what those solutions are and how viable it is, and whether they have better solutions,” she said.
According to Peters, they are doing a country assessment, which will be a report with a number of recommendations.
She added that to assess the challenges faced by the task force, they conducted assessments, conducted surveys and looked at some special projects.
She further said that the conference would interrogate the recommendation of a national data centre.
“A national data centre is also a central point where you have various types of data, generated by citizens, different ministries and systems and have it all running together,” she said.
Last year the IPPR said that the 4IR in Namibia Faces Fundamental Issues.
Last year, Peters said her team faced data collection issues because the country has different data sources in the private sector and government.
In that regard, she outlined some preliminary recommendations, such as establishing a national data centre.
According to her, a national data centre is very important.
“If we can take control and ownership of our own data and produce our own expertise and technology to handle that, it will help Namibia to make many more predictions and data-driven decisions,” she explained.
Geingob will officially open the expo, hosted under the theme “4IR as an enabler of green and inclusive industrialisation.”
