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Michele Montecchio, the Country Manager for MEA at Acer, says despite the advancements in the African technology industry, there continues to be funding challenges
What are your reasons for coming onboard GITEX Africa, what are your expectations, and who are you hoping to meet at the show?
The event is the perfect platform for networking with existing partners as well as creating and building relationships with new partners and stakeholders from across the region.
We also take the opportunity to display and exhibit our relevant product and service offerings and present our latest innovations.
During the event we’re hoping to meet decision makers from various industries (including government and other complimentary industries) – who have a common goal of improving the IT industry and are interested in ensuring effective and beneficial use of our available products.
Are you planning to launch any product/service, demonstrate any technology, or sign any partnership/MoU during the show? Please provide details.
We are excited to share that we will be demonstrating two of our hero gaming products – Nitro V 15 and Predator Helios Neo 16. These are both cutting edge gaming devices featuring up to the latest Intel 14th Gen CPU’s and top of the line NVIDIA 40 series GPU’s.
They also come pre-installed software to optimize gaming performance and cooling (NitroSense and PredatorSense). In addition, we will be exhibiting our Aspire 3 – an everyday PC that enables you to be productive with a long battery life, powerful i7 processor and a FHD display.
What are the trends that might shape the African tech ecosystem in 2024?
Despite the advancements in the African technology industry, there continues to be funding challenges which particularly affects early-stage startups and SMEs. Investors often perceive the African market as high-risk due to economic risk, regulatory hurdles, and infrastructural challenges.
Also, there is an increased desire and need for IT services across all industries – from agriculture to healthcare. As these industries adopt digital tools to enhance efficiency and productivity, the demand for robust IT infrastructure and services is surging.
Like everywhere else in the world, AI is making significant inroads in Africa and this will continue as it is implemented in different ways across a variety of businesses and institutions, particularly in the education sphere.
Finally, to ensure that the growing industry of tech and IT is effectively used, there continues to be a strong emphasis on the availability and accessibility of training for digital skills in order to be able to use technology in an optimal way.
How important is Africa for your business and what is the volume of business growth you anticipate in this region over the next few years?
We believe that Africa is our biggest opportunity for growth. We aim to achieve our double digit growth target by expanding to new countries and of course, maintaining markets we have recently activated.
To what extent can the governments of African countries support and accelerate the continent’s tech industry?
We believe that by providing education around digital literacy, it can support the continent’s tech industry. Since access to funding is one of the biggest difficulties for Africa’s tech industry, the securing and strengthening of development funds by the government will help the industry to flourish.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities of doing business in Africa?
Some of the biggest challenges for doing business in Africa is the liquidity of foreign currencies and the fluctuation of local currencies. The instability with pricing can cause a risk to larger companies to supply local markets.
With governments in Africa continuing to focus on education, we do expect this vertical to be the biggest opportunity for development.
What industry verticals in Africa are you targeting and why?
Our primary focus in Africa is education, since this is also a big focus for us globally. Additionally, gaming continues to be a growing form of entertainment plus there are synergies between gaming and education, as gamification becomes increasingly popular.
Healthcare is also of importance to us since, as Acer, we have dedicated business lines (such as Acer Medical) to specifically cater to this industry.
Global funds have invested massively in African startups recently. How do you see the market behaving in the next five years and in which ways that will influence the investments in the region?
Investments into startups in the region have provided support for developing various industry in a quicker manner. This aid of global funds will continue to fast track countries within Africa to further develop their tech industries.
This influx of capital also supports IT infrastructure across the healthcare and education sectors which will help them to flourish. From Acer’s perspective, we’ll continue to supply and serve the market – growing and investing with Africa for the next 5 years and beyond. We feel that Africa great potential and look forward to seeing what will happen over the course of the next decade.
Have you noticed an increase in the availability of technical skills and young talent in Africa recently due to the tech industry expansion? In which ways has this impacted the companies in the region?
Yes, we have seen an increase in the availability of technical skills across majority of the African countries we operate in due to the tech industry expansion. This has had such a positive impact for companies in the region as it allows for more young talent to upskill themselves early and be equipped for future demands by acquiring the necessary skills.
This has also allowed for there to be an increase in skillset for local employment rather than depending on internationally skilled individuals to do the job, further contributing to helping to grow the local economy.
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