Published by Chester Robards, Nassau Guardian, January 9th, 2025
One of the principals of tech firm Plato Alpha Design, Keith Roye II, contends that The Bahamas has the talent it needs to facilitate many types of innovation through technology, despite a report published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that found that The Bahamas has “insufficient innovation skills in the labor market”.
Roye’s company Plato Alpha Design – a Bahamian owned firm – has already designed products to satisfy a large chunk of the IDB report’s explanation of “generally innovative”.
“Firms referred to as ‘generally innovative’ are those that have introduced at least one of the following: new or improved goods; new or improved services, methods for producing goods or providing services, logistics, delivery, or distribution methods; methods for accounting and other administrative operations, business practices for organizing procedures or external relations, methods for organizing work responsibility, decision-making, and human resource management; and marketing methods for promotion, packaging, pricing, and products,” the IDB report said.
Roye said despite the existence of companies like his and other tech-forward firms in The Bahamas, many companies, as well as the government, continue to hire firms outside The Bahamas to design nuanced platforms to service Bahamians.
“A lot of the systems that were built specifically for the government weren’t built by Bahamian talent,” said Roye.
“What’s happening is you have outside companies that are being contracted to build these systems, that don’t really have an understanding of the landscape here. What we’re getting in return is a sub-par product that now has to satisfy the entire Bahamian population.” He added: “Based on what I would have read this morning (Wednesday) in the paper, the IDB is stating that we don’t have the talent locally to be as forward thinking as some of these other Caribbean countries. But in reality, we do.
“It’s just a matter of what’s being put at the forefront versus what’s being put on the back burner. Technology, in my opinion, has been on the back burner for quite some time.”
Roye, who is also part of the Digital Transformation Committee, as well as the newly formed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Committee of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation (BCCEC), said the committee members are working to understand how businesses feel about AI and what they want from technology.
He said despite the advancements that have been made in The Bahamas in terms of technology, including launching the world’s first central bank digital currency (CBDC), the launch of the MyGateway platform, and the impending launch of Oracle Cloud Bahamas, the country has still been slow to bring on and use technology.
Roye explained that local tech companies have been making some headway in introducing innovative digital tech to private businesses and the public sector, including AI.
“A lot of companies are a bit wary in introducing AI into their operations,” he said. “That’s also something that my company has been trying to push forward, trying to get the message out that artificial intelligence can speed up your operations and make things more efficient. I just think the culture at the end of the day here in The Bahamas, our culture, has always been a bit laid back.”
Read the entire news report here >>> https://www.thenassauguardian.com/business/bahamas-has-the-talent-to-innovate-via-technology-says-tech-boss/article_4e381d2e-cd33-11ef-a62a-5b73b55dfe7a.html
