Coronavirus teaches that most jobs can be done from home – Hubtell CEO

The coronavirus outbreak has demonstrated that most jobs could be done from home without necessarily being present in the office to work, Alex Bram, CEO of Hubtel Ghana, has said.

He however said, for this to happen, policy makers will have to ensure that there is availability of internet connectivity at an affordable price.

He was speaking on the Business Focus prgramme hosted by Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Monday April 13, regarding the lockdown of some parts of the country over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following this development most workers have had to operate from home.

Mr Bram explained that : “This is going to force everybody to think about new ways of doing things. So in many ways it is going to accelerate our already existing path towards these technologies and how they are going to impact our life.

“It is not a bad situation for the world, I think it is really a good time for all us to think about these possibilities that we all don’t have to go to work and be chained to a desk top and work. Some of us can actually begin to think of new ways of work because we have the technologies to achieve work.”

He added : “What we look at as work will have to change for some people, It will not change for everybody, for example the construction sector, doctors and some profession they will still have to be present to get the work done. I think it is a good time for us to look at innovation.”

Regarding the quality of internet service in Ghana, he said : “For Ghana we are far better than most countries despite the problems and challenges that we have with the internet service delivery. 4G is fairly widely available, fiber broadband availability to home is also fairly available.

“The problem is cost and accessibility so I think this is a good time for business people, for government or policy makers to take advantage of to accelerate.

“The government for the past three years has been preaching digitization and so this is perhaps the time for us to accelerate it. This is a smart new world.”