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.

Further reading and notes

Fernandos Ongolly on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandos-ongolly-phd-89927b32/

Proudly Made in Africa is a Trade Justice and Global Citizenship Education organization. For more see - https://www.proudlymadeinafrica.org

Also, the PMIA Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@proudlymadeinafrica

Acknowledgements

Music 

Title: Faceplant with UK Garage

Artist: Allen Higgins

Source:  a-Wed23Oct2024

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Includes samples from Ableton Live by Ableton AG and by KORG Inc.

Cover Art 

Title: Guest and class

Artist: Allen Higgins

Source: Pepperdine_Fernandos.pptx

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Podcast License

Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 

The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0

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