0254 - The PMIA Perspective with Fernandos Ongolly

Today we’re talking with Fernandos Ongolly, to learn about home-grown innovations and digital startups from The Continent – in this case, Africa.

Our hosts are Selma Anya, Safa A. A. Emam, and Diana Achiro, students on the MSc Digital Innovation programme.

Fernandos has a PhD from UCD. He is the current “Proudly Made in Africa” Fellow in Business and Development at UCD College of Business, and the founder of – Non-EU Academics and Researchers Community in Ireland.

Our audience is the class of 2025 studying the Outsourcing and Offshoring module taught by Allen Higgins.

First, Fernandos, would you like to say a few words about your current role and a little about your journey?

· African nations might not be the first place that investors and business associate with “technology ambition”, can you set the context? [notes: technical infrastructure, physical infrastructure, population demographics, connectedness etc.]

· Talk about some success stories from Africa and the sectors they occur in? [notes: in FinTech, Education, AgriTech and eCommerce]

· What are the opportunities for outsourcing to Africa? [notes: BPO, content moderation and specialized services, much of today’s AI is/was trained by centers in Africa]

· For the startup environment, like Silicon Valley, where are the incubators, clusters, and centers of excellence? [notes: the three big regions East, West and South – Kenya; Nigeria; South Africa]

· Can you talk about the role culture plays. No doubt there are challenges but opportunities too? [notes: strong social ties, high-trust cultures, entrepreneurial attitude is prevalent – trading is a way of life]

· Questions from the hosts

· Questions from the audience.