People, the customer experience and innovation to support changing business models have been identified as central to Africa's digitalisation strategy.

Speaking on the sidelines of the AfricaCom conference, hosted recently in Cape Town, Giorgio Heiman, VP Africa, Orange Business Services, said in preparing for the impact of digitalisation on the continent's economy, Africa must take cognisance of people combined with processes and top technologies – including cloud, mobility and IoT.

Internet access lies at the core of the continent's ability to adequately prepare for digitalisation and its anticipated impact.

Heiman reflected on '2016: The Internet Minute' – what happens in a single minute on the internet (sourced from Exelacom) to reflect the impact of digitalisation on users across the world.

In a minute on the Net, there are 701,389 Facebook logins, 527, 760 photos shared, 150 million emails sent, 2.4 million Google search queries and 2.78 million YouTube videos watched.

One of Orange's focus areas is the sale of internet to carriers and ISPs across Africa. "We have about two hundred customers in a hundred countries worldwide and Africa is one of the places we do sell internet to carriers and ISPs," said Heiman.

The Orange Group executive also mentioned mobility and relevant predictions from analysts.

Heiman said that the number of mobile devices is multiplying rapidly and has created a need for universal connectivity, and by 2020, the world is expected to generate an average 35 billion terabytes of data per year.

The cloud will be used to deliver more flexible ways to manage IT and maximise infrastructure, he said, while social networks will be used to provide new ways for customers and employees to interact as the enterprise becomes more open.

Researchers say there will be 2,55 billion users on social networks by 2017.

Heiman described the World Economic Forum's (WEF) top 10 emerging technologies of 2016 as significant.

These technologies include nanosensors, the Internet of Nanothings, next generation batteries, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, perovskite solar cells and open AI ecosystem.

Heiman said that extreme customisation, 3D printing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continue to influence the market going forward.

"Now we are coming into extreme customisation... building things that are unique for the specific consumer. We are talking about micro-marketing careers, now we are going down to the individual. Two or three years ago, Gartner predicted that by the year 2018 the total cost of ownership of business process would decrease by I think 20% thanks to robotics," he added.