James Claude, CEO of Global Voice Group.

The advent of data protection legislation in Africa is fueling the development- and adoption of regulation technology, something service providers like Global Voice Group are eager to tap into.

Legislation like PoPIA and GDPR forces businesses to comply with data governance protocols and procedures.

“Regtech is evolving where government agencies from Central Banks, telecom regulators, and finance ministries can make use of ICT to oversee the different sectors they are mandated to regulate,” James Claude, CEO of Global Voice Group, told ITWeb Africa.

According to Claude these agencies are focusing more on the use of data in policy and decision making - but integrating data with business processes needs to be seamless and this is where regulation technology plays a pivotal role.

According to Claude, while governments hold the bulk of public data, this data is often stored in silos and authorities are limited in their means to make the information useful.

Global Voice Group has worked with several African government agencies to implement ICT and data application strategies to ensure that information is used effectively to formulate policy and support development policies.

Claude says that this information, combined with other data sources such as telecommunications data, can bolster planning and enable effective predictive analysis.

This is something that the Global Voice Group is looking to provide.

“Rwanda is already using mobility data to oversee the tourism sector, and the country has used it to monitor curfew times during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Claude added.

The company has also helped the government of Ghana to use mobility data to understand population movement on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also developing a credit score platform to enhance financial inclusion.

Claude admitted it is a major challenge to educate its market about the advantages of using data for decision making.

“There are a few aspects that require improvement in terms of educating the different stakeholders on how data can be used and be turned into useful information for decision making,” he said.

Another challenge is the lack of infrastructure investments to ensure that government agencies have the right tools to make use of data sets.

His company helps agencies make those initial investments to showcase the importance of technology in development planning.