THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IS HERE

A fortnight ago the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) National Taskforce presented to the public a draft strategy, the broad strokes of how Uganda is going to situate itself in this new phenomenon.

The first industrial revolution saw the shift away from animal and manual power to the use of fossil fuels for energy and mechanical power. Electricity heralded the second industrial revolution. We are easing out of the third revolution where digitisation and internet connectivity have been its main features. The fourth industrial revolution is seeing the combination of virtual, physical and biology interactions facilitated by technology.

Looking down the ages  we can see that the duration between industrial revolutions are becoming much shorter, with each revolution increasing human productivity dramatically.

The difference between how far one can go on bicycle as compared to riding in a car not only  compressed distances but time itself. Or the difference in output between having a computer connected to the net and juggling a typewriter, calculator and making regular runs to a physical library.

The fourth industrial revolution, with its advances in cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain technologies, 3D printing, autonomous vehicles   and biotechnologies is going to dramatically – is already, changing the way we produce, distribute and consume goods and services.

"The wide application of these technologies, as will inevitably happen is set to increase our productivity exponentially to the point that futurists envisage a time when machines will do all the work and we will be paid to just seat around....

As incredible as that sounds, as recently as the 1980s the idea of wireless telephony, driverless cars and 3D printing were the stuff of sci-fi novels and movies.

But just as the potential of this new revolution is hard to wrap ones mind around its also true that the early adopters will have a head start on everybody else, with real ramifications for global and local wealth distribution, security and natural resource usage and regeneration.

It was therefore inspired thinking when Uganda launched its 4IR taskforce to look into how Uganda can proactively take advantage of this new revolution.

Over about a year the taskforce chaired by John Nasasira, himself a former ICT minster and peopled by members from government, academia and the private sector have turned the subject upside down and come up with a strategy which will help Uganda get ahead on the subject.

"The opportunities identified include increasing agricultural productivity, boosting human capital development, supporting urbanisation and governance and bridging other development deficiencies...

Its an elegant document that spells what and where the opportunities are, how we can set up to take advantage and the agencies that will lead the charge into the brave new world.

Its value will be in how much the government will adopt and operationalise the strategy.

To illustrate, if we had comparable document going into the ICT era the government would not have stumbled over issues of taxing computers and mobile phones, would have been better prepared to create an enabling environment which allows us to take maximum advantage of ICT and even prepared us better for 4IR.

We are not the worst –

we have a liberalised telecommunications sector, which has seen our phone penetration increase by leaps and bounds, introduced financial services that exploded the stuffiness of the banks and increased the general productivity of the economy in the face of donor moodiness, a global financial crisis and several natural disasters.

Imagine if we had been more deliberate and systematic in appreciating and taking advantage of the digitial age? It is not a stretch to imagine we would be much better off as a country today.

To take advantage of this new era certain enablers have to be put in place – greater 4IRconnectivity, greater regulatory agility, upskilling of Ugandans, deeper eGovernment, resource mobilisation and investment promotion to attract new players.

"Contrary to popular opinion government has a good record of following through on reports it generates, only that it s does not accompany the execution with as much fanfare as they do when releasing the report....

Given the speed with which things are changing this new strategy has a short shelf life than say the report on URA or the police, so speed is of the essence in operationalising the strategy.

Nevertheless its a document that can be referred to and upgraded in coming years.

I remember more than two decades ago to get my stories to Nairobi where the Reuters office was, i had to type the stories out, slide down to the post office to send the fax and stand by the fax machine to ensure the whole story was transmitted. The process took at least an hour.

"Today not only are fax machines obsolete but off my phone I can write a story, while in motion and email, whatsapp or text it down the line, the whole process taking little more than 30 minute  or not much more than it takes to write the story...

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In theory I can now generate at least twice as much as I used to then and for much cheaper.

I think that’s amazing. But I have to pose when I think that with proper utilisation of 4IR technologies the same story may take even a third as much time to execute.

Comparable gains can be seen in any industry. Hang on to your seats we are in for an exciting ride.