03 May 2023
In collaboration with partner universities in Africa and Finland, the African School of Economics (ASE) has launched Africa’s first 5G Mokki Tech Space, a network of immersive digital learning and remote work environments connected via 5G.
In addition to its campuses in Benin and Ivory Coast, the modular tech spaces will take the ASE’s presence to remote areas, helping local communities leapfrog access to high-technology education, remote job creation and digital entrepreneurship. The satellite model of the ASE’s tech spaces can help prevent various African regions and remote areas from falling behind in, for example, the innovation and acceleration of products and services powered by artificial intelligence.
The 5G Mokki is a modular high-tech unit for developing software applications that require ultra-fast internet connections, to render immersive, 3D, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) learning environments, as well as to deliver innovation services and remote work from and to any location in the world.
The tech spaces enable new types of trans-continental studies combining technology and business.
High-speed networks between Africa and North America provide great opportunities to universities, companies, individuals, and households on both continents. With remote services and operations carried out over digital networks, regions will be able to develop economically by allocating their resources more efficiently. Less need for travel also helps in promoting socially and ecologically sustainable development.
Compared to the technology standards preceding it, 5G will enable data connections that are a hundred times faster on mobile devices and ten times faster than the fastest fixed broadband services currently. However, its true potential lies in enabling entirely new categories of applications like drones, self-driving cars, complex industrial processes, remote surgery, remote learning, remote work, and meetings in virtual or augmented reality.
With its natural resources, young population and growing markets, Africa has the potential to become a productivity powerhouse. Corporations anywhere in the world will find access to technologically skilled labour and services from Africa via high-touch, 5G-enabled remote connections in real time.
Without innovative approaches to training and job creation, traditional degree-based education falls short of creating sufficient employment opportunities. For example, approximately half a million students graduate from Cameroon’s universities every year, but only some 3,000 of these graduates tend to find employment. Cameroon is no exception in Africa.
The 5G Mokkis provide an opportunity for international corporations to tap into highly skilled, young African talent, not only to deliver remote work, but also to spur innovation.
