US tech restrictions will have far-reaching impact

Monday, June 29, 2020 0:01

By CAROL MUSYOKA

We urgently need to lower costs and to accelerate technology deployment in Africa.

More companies are bracing themselves for this opportunity and the future will see more collaborations and licensing of technology by various players in the ecosystem.

There are, however, restrictions imposed by the US government that will bring change to the supply chain for technology products.

The restrictions seem to target the current global leader in telecommunications infrastructure such as 5G and is now poised to become a leader in other emerging technologies such as cloud and AI.

An attempt to control who can use what technology and who can work with which partners, instead of leaving it to the forces of supply and demand, goes against the principles of an open ecosystem and is likely to slow down the whole innovation ecosystem.