Nana B. Abban (right)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Officer (CEO) of Akaditi, an agility services, technology and Events Company based in London, UK and Accra, has urged business owners in Ghana to stop employing persons without knowledge in Information Technology (IT) to top management positions.
According to Nana B. Abban, (the CEO), employing individuals without IT education to top management positions in the current digital world is a risky decision.
That, he said, has the potential of negatively affecting the progress of a business organization.
Mr. Abban made the call in an interview with BUSINESS GUIDE at the Melwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) on the sideline of the closing ceremony of ‘AGILE in Africa 2016’ conference in Accra on Friday.
The AGILE conference, organized by Akaditi in partnership with MEST from 24th to 28th October, was under the theme: “The Way of the Cheetah…Achieving Business Agility In Digital Age.”
It sought to empower young people with the requisite knowledge and skills in information technology and agility to enable them become better business leaders.
“The theme speaks to the fact that Africa is the 2nd fastest growing continent in the world and is rising fast with the advent of new technologies, access to internet, increase in mobile phones and use of social media,” he noted.
Mr. Abban said, “Every single executive, every single business person should have some IT knowledge in the information age.”
According to him, “…it is key for managers and directors or executives and everyone in the organization to understand what is software because software in the information age is what runs everything.”
That, he said, was because businesses cannot leverage on the potentials of IT if their managers do not understand the new communication technologies.
He described top business executives without IT knowledge as the “illiterates” of the digital age.
Mr. Abban indicated, “So if you are a manager or executive in the digital age and have no idea of software, we say you become the new illiterate because when you become the new illiterate, it means that you will lack the skills or the knowledge to be able to effectively leverage the power of software in your organization to help boost productivity and increase the performance of your organization.”
Many organizations, he said, have employees who don’t have knowledge in IT, thereby affecting their capacity to produce efficiently to beat competition.
Akaditi’s operations in the UK and Ghana are supported by a highly talented team of Business Development, Management, Strategy, Technology, Marketing, Branding and Administration Experts.
BY Melvin Tarlue