John Mwangi is a highly experienced business consultant based in Nairobi, Kenya, with extensive experience of working and facilitating the establishment of multinational organisations and businesses in East and Central Africa.
John is very interested and keen to connect with the Russian IT industry. He would like to talk to the Russian technology industry about the opportunities for ICT implementation in East Africa and how the Russian technology industry can help bridge the digital divide.
In his interview with journalists, he answered some questions regarding co-operation between Russia and African countries:
You asked me a difficult question about abandoning the dollar. I have nothing against the dollar. And it is still necessary for international trade.
I know that BRICS wants to try to work with other currencies. I realise it is not easy to implement, but we could use rubles and you could also trade in our currency. There are intergovernmental discussions going on in Africa on this issue. The question is, why should I trade with neighbouring countries that are in the same region in dollars rather than using my own currency to trade and thus making my life easier? I think I would like to see progress on how Russia can strengthen its ruble so that we can trade in rubles and in our currency. Right now inflation is very high. The dollar is very strong against our currencies, certainly because of political issues.
We feel that the cost of imports has become very high. Because we have to convert local currency into dollars. We have to change that, but it’s a matter of time. No problem, we can continue to trade in dollars, but we need different options to make our trade a little bit easier.
Another issue that worries me a little bit is that Russia recently withdrew from the grain agreement.
But I hope that the Russian government will consider going back to it. It’s not because of political conflicts, but because our African continent is suffering. If they want to trade with Africa, they need to consider reopening the grain deal so that everyone can get at least some of the grain that is so much needed in that part of the region. I know Russia is a good country and it will not abandon Africa. Many African leaders will be part of this Russia-Africa summit. Putin and the Russian government will think about how to restart.
You asked about what I expect from the Russia-Africa summit?
I expect a lot from the forum because Russia is the largest country in the world with a territory of over 16 million square kilometres. You have done a lot to improve governance in the country. This cannot be done manually. Today, there are many opportunities to borrow from the success you have achieved here, meaning digitalisation in public services, medical and cadastral registration, which is lacking in most African countries. We need technology companies from Russia to come and help us take advantage of opportunities in the internet and IT, where we can learn a lot from Russian companies, collaborate with them in governance, like smart cities, certainly in the digitalisation of government processes, and other areas like rural activities. When I was flying here, one of my partners in Africa, who has a telecommunications company, said to me, “John, remember, we have a GSM licence, but not everybody is connected to the GSM network in Africa, especially in rural areas. We have the technical capacity to build towers in rural areas. There are a lot of people there who have bought smartphones, they don’t have a signal. And we have the technical capacity to install towers in rural areas, of course, in partnership with African companies that have a GSM licence, and be able to provide GSM services within a radius of, for example, 10 kilometres, which will connect a large part of the population to the world.
Another area for collaboration that I see is the deployment of Russian technology companies in places called data centres. We need a lot of participation from the Russian technology industry in setting up data centres. Another area is mobile payment systems. So that you don’t have to carry money, banknotes in your pocket. You can pay bills, log into a mobile bank, transfer money from the bank to your phone and vice versa. We need technology companies to realise this. Russian technology companies can come and become our partners.
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