This has clearly been an interesting year on the news mill, not just because of the American presidential elections, but also because in Gambia the incumbent lost an election, conceded defeat, congratulated the winner but a week later changed his mind! For some of these events you don’t even know whether to laugh or cry. In Ghana, an incumbent lost an election too and all is well there. 

Of all the events that happened during the week the meeting between President Paul Kagame and members of the Rwandan business community organised by the Private Sector Federation is what got my attention most. I must admit that I did not follow most of it as it aired live on TV but I was lucky to tune in at a time the president was raising a crucial point. 

In his usual call for improved service delivery, the president derided government officials that make life difficult for those seeking services always being absent from their offices and stalling work in the process. We can all relate to those moments when you get to a certain ‘important’ office only to be told by the receptionist that the ‘important’ person you need to see is not in office. In short, no work can be done in his/her absence.

According to the President, this is not an excuse for one not to perform their duties thanks to the technological advancements that have made offices more about efficiency than physical addresses. He could not be more right on this. In this age technology has done a lot to liberate the office and increased efficiency. 

Compare traditional postal mail and email for instance. In the past, one had to sit down write something put it in an envelope, attach a stamp and head out to the post office. Then you would wait for weeks or months for the person on the other end to receive and respond through the same process. 

Today all you need is an internet enabled gadget and an email account. People send emails from their beds, from airport lobbies, and even on planes several feet above the ground and get instant responses. Most of these officials who stall work by ‘stepping out’ of office have access to email wherever they go and can still ensure that things are done whether or not they are physically in the office. 

The internet revolution has also made it possible for us to do the same things from almost any location without always going to the head office thanks to the connectivity that is possible today. Files can be saved on company servers and accessed from other locations to ensure smooth services. Cloud computing has even made life much easier in this regard. 

My favourite of course has been the impact of social media on the operations of companies or government offices. With platforms like Twitter or Facebook, many of us no longer have to physically show up at an office to locate that ubiquitous yet least-attended-to suggestion box to drop our complaints or suggestions. We can post them on Facebook or fire off a tweet and expect a response in about an hour or a few minutes. 

Companies/government offices also no longer have to delay issuing press releases by sending them out to traditional media houses. They can just post them online on their websites, or better still, on their social media pages and the news will spread to every corner very fast. After all today the traditional media houses have found themselves constantly fishing around for news on social media. 

Meetings have not been spared too by this new wave of technology. You will be shocked at how much business is now conducted via company WhatsApp groups. A lot of what would normally be issues that require calling of a meeting and putting everything on hold can now be handled in the company WhatsApp group. In the group, a junior staff member can pose a question to the boss without having to beg the personal assistant for an appointment.

Technology has always been about improving efficiency and productivity and therefore no one can hide behind not being in a physical location for them to be of use. This column, for example, has been sent to my editors via email from different parts of Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Turkey, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as from deep in game parks where the connection is quite wild if I can call it that.