Digital Service Delivery In Africa

The dynamics of the world’s pervasive digital technologies is transforming organisations and enabling enterprises to create sustainable competitive advantage. This presents huge economic opportunities for Africa. This book responds to the need for African enterprises and organisations—particularly those in the service sector—to fully exploit the inherent potential in digital platforms by putting in place processes to respond effectively to changing consumer demands. Digital service delivery is conceptualised as a key driver of effective management and service delivery across the value chain of businesses. The authors offer insights into the opportunities, drivers, structures, and models of digital service delivery specific to the African context, using case studies and country-based themes that highlight how the adoption of digital platforms and practices can transform service delivery for value-creation. The book examines the scope and applications of digital businesses, emphasising the emergence, value-creation, and strategic implications for Africa’s private and public enterprises. Students, entrepreneurs, IT innovators, academics, and policymakers will gain a greater understanding of how digitalisation is shaping consumer expectations, industry practices, and service delivery in Africa.

Customer service management is one of the key pillars of today’s business environment. Businesses operating in sub-Saharan Africa and other frontier markets have begun to embrace the concept of customer service management, with many incorporating the notion into their mission statements – with many forward-thinking companies transitioning from a transactional to a more strategic view of the customer. As customers have evolved and transformed from "passive audiences" to "active players" businesses are moving away from "the old industry model that sees value as created from goods and services to a new model where value is created by experiences". Today, businesses and customers create value through customised, co-produced offerings. This co-creation of value helps firms highlight the customer’s or consumer’s point of view and improve the front-end process of identifying customers’ needs. Given the increasing recognition of the customer as a co-creator of value, perceptions of customer service quality during COVID-19 and afterwards matter to businesses in Africa looking to thrive in a new post-COVID era since customers increasingly face several choices in the bid to access consumer products and services. This book consists of seven chapters beginning with an overview detailing the importance of customer service matters to Africa’s development and ending with a discussion of the future directions for enhanced customer service delivery in Africa. Each chapter in this book includes actual customer service and delivery practices from various countries on the African continent, including Egypt, Ghana, and South Africa, and uncovers the challenges, successes, and potential areas for improvement in delivering quality customer service.

This edited volume seeks to examine how enterprises in Africa can utilize digital technologies and innovations in creating value for their customers and clients in order to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Through social media, businesses are increasingly reaching and engaging their customers in several ways and so enterprises in Africa must harness the opportunities in the digital space if they want to remain competitive, earn profit, and meet their customers’ needs. Accordingly, this book looks at how digital technologies are helping shape the financial, educational, and advertising sectors in Africa. As digital technologies raise challenges, the chapters that follow will discuss ethical and social practical frameworks to effective digital business in Africa. This volume promises to fore both theoretical underpinnings, and practical implementations of digital technologies in the African business context.

For African enterprises, entrepreneurs and governments to take full advantage of new digital opportunities, they need a shared strategic understanding of where they are, what they have, and what they may need to have for the future. This book presents this shared strategic vision to guide future coordinated actions of African enterprises, entrepreneurs, consumers/citizens and governments in using new and emerging digital technologies. It showcases how consumers/citizens, entrepreneurs, organisations, institutions and governments are leveraging new and emerging digital innovations to disrupt and transform value creation and service delivery in Africa.

Efforts have been made toward the application of electronic government in the developing world, yet questions of how to best implement governance systems and address concerns from officials and citizens alike remain to be answered. Emerging Issues and Prospects in African E-Government explores relevant practices, trends, and potential challenges facing fledgling governments in the digital era. This book focuses on the establishment and maintenance of e-government in various African countries, providing critical insights for government bodies, policymakers, administrators, and public sector researchers working in local, state, and national governments around the world.

There are essential questions surrounding Africa's digitalization journey, including whether or not the continent can truly serve as the last frontier for socio-economic transformation through digital innovation. An examination of countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and Rwanda, which are actively pursuing digitalization, may provide some answers. To evaluate the potential implications, both real and potential, that arise from this focused pursuit, a critical analysis is necessary. Scrutiny of digital infrastructure by companies like Huawei, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and the advent of quantum computing will open new pathways to understanding and establishing promising approaches to the advancement of this region. Examining the Rapid Advance of Digital Technology in Africa offers a comprehensive exploration of the transformative power of digitalization in Africa and its implications for the continent's socio-economic development. It engages with the field of science and technology studies, linking it with socio-economic impacts and transformation, to track, analyze, understand, and critique Africa's contributions to digitalization. The chapters cover a wide range of themes, including ICTs and the business environment, education, healthcare, creative industries, media, culture, tourism, agriculture, ecology, artificial intelligence, blockchain and cryptocurrency revolution, algorithmic governance, the quantum age, and urbanization. This book is a must-read for researchers, scholars, investors, and policymakers who are interested in Africa's digital transformation, as it offers valuable insights into the latest empirical and theoretical aspects shaping the continent's ongoing digitalization.

15th Inaugural Lecture of the Pan-Atlantic University delivered on Sept 1, 2023, by Professor Ogechi Adeola LL.B (Nigeria), B.L. (Nigeria), MBA (Manchester), DBA (Manchester), Professor of Marketing. Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria

The Last Digital Frontier: The History and Future of Science and Technology in Africa. This book tells a long overdue and timeless story of the rise of mankind in Africa, uncovers inventions and innovations across the continent throughout time, and paints a forecast of its digital revolution in the 21st century and beyond.The book provides a compelling historic and forward-looking exploration of “the last digital frontier” of access and inclusion, Africa, and its potential to lead, host, and create the innovation breakthroughs of the future. Pre-order now: www.brianasingia.com About the Author: Brian ASINGIA “Technology is a tool for progress towards a better society.” - ASINGIA, @brianasingia ASINGIA, CEO DreamGalaxy Platform and DreamAfrica Consulting, has over 10 years involvement in the intersection of economy, business development, environment, technology and the arts, with a focus on Africa. He began his career at Wall Street’s The New York Stock Exchange where he started as a Business Analyst in Enterprise Architecture’s CORE Technology group and left as an Associate in the Product Management group. Through his work with startups and consulting, he has engaged governments, diplomats, educational institutions, and programs like Creative Lab Paris, Traction Camp by the World Bank, TED Residency by TED, and Entrepreneurs for Impact MBA by ALTIS, Milan (Tangaza University Business Model Winner 2016). He has spoken at or attended trainings and conferences such as African Billionaire Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur Network (TEF), Africa Trade and Investment Summit (ATIGS), Concordia, Ivy Business Schools, and alma mater networks including: Lafayette College, International House NYC (as a Shelby Davis Scholar) and the United World College (UWC) alumni community. ASINGIA believes Africans must seize this moment to capture and document the truth of their past, so as to learn and grow from it. He publishes The Last Digital Frontier and writes books and scripts for film and tv. Join him at www.brianasingia.com @brianasingia #AskAsingia