Measure Up or Perish!

It has come, in the recent past, to the understanding of almost everyone that the digital economy with its modern and evolving tools constitutes a sure and futuristic source for job creation and wealth generation. More so by virtue of the calibre and number of most youthful people it attracts and the growing desire by many a sector  and stakeholders to move from the hitherto manual way of doing things. Rapid evolution that leaves few, if not none, indifferent!
With the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic; call it Covid-19, that has obliged all and sundry to readjust and embrace varied barrier measures among which physical distancing, the digital economy has stood out as the rare forum to keep lives and livelihoods going, after all. 
To say the least, digitization has come in to bridge the gaps left by required shutdowns and social distancing measures. Many have thus come to the understanding that without digital tools and technologies, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to keep working, shopping, going to school et al. More so as human-to-human contacts are being discouraged.
Before the outbreak of the deadly virus, meetings and conferences grouping huge numbers of people had been the order of the day. All these have given way to visual platforms like video-conferences via skype, zoom among others. Schools are increasingly adopting online teaching and learning, sometimes patients-medics are obliged to meet online for consultation and prescription. In effect, tele-work and telemedicine have greatly gained in intensity ever since Covid-19 scared people from meeting as usual. The business sector is not left out as the electronic selling and buying (e-commerce) which was evolving timidly is obliged to blossom owing to the fact that frontiers are closed and movements discouraged as much as possible. In fact, almost everything is done online now.
As devastating as the pandemic may be, it has however caused a great surge of the digital economy.  It is easy to get to petty trading zones now and hear traders tell customers that they can hence pay for what they buy by mobile money. Even some pastors have resorted to recording their gospel messages and distributing them to faithful via mobile platforms or organising electronically-aided church services to keep the propagation of God’s message going. Even small loan and saving schemes fondly called “njiangis” are increasingly going online as members can no longer meet as usual.  As people all know, this digital order is far from being new but simply brought into sharp focus by the challenges of the time. 
At a time Cameroon and the world are going physic...