Ranked #10 among nations in North America along with being placed #79 worldwide on the Global Innovation Index 2024 rankings, lies an island in the Caribbean that is widely known for its rich culture and traditions along with its vast array of welcoming accommodations for visiting tourists. If I were to spout “Bob Marley” or the popular colloquial phrase “wah gwaan” that may ring a bell, so as you can imagine this island is no other than the land of wood and water, Jamaica.
Despite the preconceptions regarding the underdevelopment of the economies of 3rd world nations, whether private corporations or the public sector attribute it, Jamaica is undergoing a tech-driven change, perhaps to seize the many opportunities provided by the technological advances of the 21st century. It is to say, indeed, that the island should be given its flowers due to its pursuit to keep up with the times but there are a few obstructions that hinder the country’s goal to be the Digital Economy Choice of the Caribbean.
To succinctly summarize such challenges, they can be broken down into 3 key areas by taking into consideration findings published by the World Bank on Jamaica’s economic state:
- Sluggish productivity growth precipitated from an unfavourable business environment, a lack of innovation, and constraints on human capital.
- The economy lacks diversification, heavily relying on labour-intensive services primarily focused on tourism.
- With agriculture and tourism – sectors employing more than half of the workforce – frequently disrupted due to climate-related events, the nation’s capacity to invest in and prioritize technological advancement is limited.
Together, these challenges have made Jamaica significantly slow in adopting new technologies. However, this blog looks at how the local government can create a foundation for driving the country’s digital transformation.
How Jamaica Can Use Technology
In essence, the private and public sectors are pursuing technology in 3 broad ways: education, finance, and automation. In what follows, I’ll explore how technology is being used in each of the different ways along with elaborating on what can be done to catalyze efficient usage.
Education
From articles like Technology: the solution to poor academic outcomes to the vague promises by Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams to improve the education system by further integrating the use of technology, it can be seen that a pervasive pre-conceived notion that is constantly mentioned in media outlets is that technology can effortlessly enhance the nation’s academic performance. This, however, is not a matter of disparaging technology’s ability to produce such outcomes but rather a moment of noticing that it is just another case of tech solutionism. Undoubtedly, incorporating technology into the classroom can improve the learning experience to some extent. However, it is crucial to address the underlying contributing factors to the country’s inconsistent academic performance before looking up to technology to solve such problems.
With a 9.20 index score (on a scale of 1-10), Jamaica is among the leading nations suffering from brain drain according to the 2024 human flight and brain drain index from GlobalEconomy.com. Consequently, by taking into account the myriad of teachers who have left the nation for work opportunities elsewhere, it can be concluded that this, among many phenomena, contributes to the nation’s declining quality of education. After all, given that the local government provides relatively poor incentives to teachers this should not be surprising, but instead of facing the issue upfront at hand, it can be discerned that the government has resorted to bringing in international talent while simultaneously marketing the abilities of technology to fix their current circumstance.
In a perfect world, Jamaica would’ve already had the solid foundation of an education system to further augment with the utilization of technology, but given the precariousness of the situation, it seems impractical to add further innovation to the unstable foundation.
Finance
With the launch of Jam-Dex in 2022, a digital currency for Jamaica’s central bank, along with business structural changes such as Western Union integrating with both GraceKennedy’s GKONE mobile application and Lynk mobile app, fintech is becoming a rapidly growing sector with positive outlooks from many in the island. Driven by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a growing demand for financial services that extend beyond the scope of financial offerings. These include wealth management, foreign exchange services, insurance, and also payment systems.
Despite the rapid pace of fintech’s growth, several citizens are sceptical given their unfamiliarity with these new technologies. Additionally, due to the increasing amount of fintech solutions, the denizens may struggle to understand which service is right for them, leading to not only confusion but also feeling intimidated. Various other factors should be taken into account such as the high rate of unbanked and underbanked customers in the country, thus attributing to the average consumer’s heavy reliance on cash-based systems.
Although the convenience of fintech services is disputable, Jamaica still has a long way to go before the masses accept them over cash. Therefore, authorities must take the time to implement measures to promote financial inclusion across the region. Some ways in which this can be done include:
- Launching nationwide workshops to educate the public about financial digital infrastructures
- Providing tax breaks to businesses that adopt digital payment systems
- Investing in expanding internet access to rural communities
Automation
The process of the Quality Department of Jamaica Pre-Mix Limited to create, collect, and test the PSI of their samples is a manual process that consists of several redundancies. Following the measure of recording data such as the customer site address, the slump of the concrete, and the date the sample was taken, the data is logged into a Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) logbook. Finally, the ticket would then be sent to a manager who returns it when the samples are due to crush. It’s an unbearably lengthy process and problems such as a ticket being mixed up or misplaced are bound to occur.
By integrating AI, the entirety of this procedure could be automated, consequently saving human labour – along with time and money – to carry out another activity. A BSJ logbook could be updated without human intervention and tickets could be shared to and fro within seconds. AI can streamline the operations of many businesses, and organizations like Jamaica Fibreglass Products (JFP) Limited have already embraced the novel technology to enhance the efficiency and precision of its furniture-making design process.
No matter how, many are still pessimistic about AI taking their jobs, however, in reality, AI has only made the operations of corporations more efficient without removing the need for human input. The nation has already moved in the right direction in the creation of its AI Task Force to promote the development of a National AI Policy, so it’s only a matter of the local government continuing to create a conducive environment for AI adoption while simultaneously placating and considering the fears and concerns of its people.
Written by Romeil Grant
www.linkedin.com/in/romeilgrant
