Digital transformation, the future that Mozambique hopes to achieve

The world is experiencing, on a daily basis, an accelerated digital transformation with the emergence of several new paradigms that are already a reality for companies, as well as for Man himself in his daily life. Currently, we are heading towards a new era in which new technologies are gradually replacing man in many activities, focusing on automation, but also the role that was once seen as the main resource for recording information, is now losing space with companies’ commitment to digitalization.

Adversiting

“Managers must run their own business, through digital transformation, to improve and project their own growth” – Eliana Araújo

Combined with this new reality, with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, several companies found themselves forced to increasingly invest in technological services as a strategy to avoid being swallowed by the crisis.

In Mozambique, although digital transformation has gained some prominence in discussion forums, its implementation or investment still constitutes a major challenge for the Government as a legislator, but also for the business sector, as it needs to monitor this dynamic in order to improve its performance, as well as its competitiveness. For the Government, the challenge is related to the creation of infrastructures to support this digitalization, but these services also require the Mozambican Executive to define a basic legal framework, similar to what happened in other countries.

For this new paradigm, it is not known, until now, what stage the country is in, although it is assumed that something is being done, both by the Government and at company level.

Meanwhile, the Government, through the National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (INTIC), guarantees that it is developing several activities with a view to preparing the legal and regulatory framework for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). These initiatives, according to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of INTIC, Lourino Chemane, “aim to establish an environment for secure electronic transactions, protecting citizens, institutions and the State in cyberspace”.

Meanwhile, for the private sector, digital transformation is a factor that must accompany Mozambican companies during their growth, from the micro and macro phases, so that they are not deprived of the global market. In this sense, the vice-president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Vasco Manhiça, emphasizes that “the digital transition proves to be an unavoidable opportunity for the Mozambican business sector to become more competitive, intelligent in the way it deals with customers, and in the improvement of a new business model that includes improving production, logistics, marketing, among other factors”.

Along with these factors, Vasco Manhiça highlights that investing in digital transformation could bring benefits to both the Mozambican State and the private sector, as it could allow the correction of the proliferation and overlapping of taxes, which results in a huge tax burden for just one group of taxpayers – companies.

However, despite digital transformation being an imperative to keep up with the dynamics of globalization, Cegid Primavera, a digital company of French origin, which knows the Mozambican market well, considers that the growth of national companies, mostly made up of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), depends on investing in digital services. However, he considers that Mozambican companies still have poor control over this new target.

According to Eliana Araújo, Head of Business Development of the SMB & CPA Business Unit at Cegid in Mozambique, the big gap that exists is, basically, the training of the managers themselves, who must understand that they have to do their own business, through digital transformation, to improve and project their own growth.

“Mozambican SMEs have a lot of progress ahead of them. There are already very good companies working, but there are other spaces to be explored in their operational strategy to make qualitative and quantitative leaps”, explained Eliana Araújo.

However, despite these challenges, it is clear that some companies have already begun to become aware of this. For example, in the Mozambican banking sector, the digital transformation process has already begun to deserve investment.

DESTAQUES:

“Digital transition proves to be an unavoidable opportunity for the Mozambican business sector to become more competitive”

“Managers must run their own business, through digital transformation, to improve and project their own growth” – Eliana Araújo