Africa’s future, says Sola Oke, managing director for Pernod Ricard Africa, is being shaped at the intersection of technology, innovation, and culture.
Speaking on the Africa Tech Festival, which is being held this week in Cape Town, he highlights how AI and data-driven strategies are transforming business, while Pernod Ricard’s brands are helping African creativity reach a global audience. For Oke, the continent’s potential lies in harnessing these opportunities to develop talent, drive growth, and celebrate its culture.
Sola Oke is the managing director for Pernod Ricard Africa. Source: Supplied.
What excites you most about speaking at the Africa Tech Festival this year?
Firstly, it is about Africa, that’s a topic that excites, and secondly the platform speaks to the future of the continent, with experts across borders. With a focus on technology, and the many ways that technology can accelerate Africa’s development, it’s important that we all fully understand and are exploiting those opportunities together. From understanding the technology impact of Africa’s youthful, rapidly urbanising population, to how they can harness technology skills faster to thrive in the economy of the future.
This is just one area where technology can play an important role, by transforming how we do education and skills development. At Pernod Ricard, to give you a concrete example, we’ve introduced an AI-powered career platform called Horizons. It leverages AI to analyse millions of possible combinations between available competencies, employees, development wishes, and company needs. It matches competencies with career opportunities, suggests more transversal career paths and creates new bridges between functions. Imagine a similar platform for career development in the broader economy, matching talent with employment opportunities and suggesting new pathways for our youth to develop their skills to meet evolving requirements.
How do events like this shape the way you think about technology and innovation?
Events like this provide a platform to share best practice and learn from one another to drive a faster pace of development through innovation and actions. At Pernod Ricard, we see data and artificial intelligence as a powerful lever to unlock more growth.
We’ve integrated AI-powered decision-making support tools for our sales and marketing teams, which help us to maximise the potential of our comprehensive portfolio of premium brands. Attending Africa Tech Festival helps us stay in touch with new developments that may augment our approach in future.
From your perspective, how is Africa doing in the technology space globally over the past two decades?
I would say previously we seemed to be on the backfoot versus the rest of the world, however Africa and Africans are becoming more technologically savvy than ever before and because we are highly entrepreneurial, you can see the proceeds coming through faster than before.
With the work being done in sectors like fintech, ecommerce with global hubs and unicorns coming out of markets like Kenya and Nigeria, amongst others. These technologies are unlocking new opportunities for Africans to work or do business beyond borders.
How are your brands shaping culture in Africa ?
Pernod Ricard’s brands give platforms for Africans to bring their culture to the world, for example through Jameson’s Distilled Sounds, Martell's Afrobeats global narrative is driving the cultural connections. In markets like Nigeria, Jameson drove the Alté movement, a youth-led subculture that celebrates individuality through music, fashion, and art. Alté is known for its eclectic style and celebration of local culture.
Jameson’s Marketing taps into this by supporting creative expression, hosting events and collaborating with Alté artists; positioning itself as a brand that understands and uplifts the next generation. The Asiye campaign for Jameson Select Reserve in South Africa challenges traditional success narratives. Instead of glorifying individual achievement, it celebrates collective progress - a concept deeply rooted in African values like Ubuntu.
We saw Martell with Davido and creating a new change with Afrobeats. Why invest in this?
Culture travels faster than advertising: Music, fashion and creators are now global touchpoints. Martell is stepping into culture not as a sponsor, but as a catalyst, a platform and a creator. This is because being part of culture isn’t optional, it’s essential. Afrobeats is the biggest music Genre to come out of Africa.
Our latest Davido campaign puts the spotlight on the global rise of Afrobeats, giving us a chance to amplify this message by showing how both Davido and Martell are acting as catalysts to the expansion of Afrobeats. This provides Martell with an opportunity to shift to an Afrobeats-led strategy, while continuing to leverage Davido as an equity driver.
What’s one trend or insight from this festival that you think will have the biggest impact on your work going forward?
The impact of AI on the way we work and do business is only going to increase. At Pernod Ricard, we already see the difference this makes, as we tailor strategies for each of our more than 200 brands with more insights, ensuring the right product reaches the right consumer at the right time and price. Our local teams are empowered to act with data-driven insights, by prioritising the most promising locations or setting up timely and effective promotions that resonate with consumers.
We also recently integrated AI in our Supply Chain to enhance our sales forecast for better decision making and impact on our operations process for better efficiency. If anything stands out, it’s that AI is evolving fast; we will need to adapt in order to harness its opportunities and the ways in which we use it.
Why do you think it’s important for African collectives and initiatives, like Black At or Africa Tech Week, to collaborate and support each other in driving innovation and growth across the continent?
As individual businesses and organisations, we can only benefit from Africa’s development through innovation and growth because ultimately, we can only thrive if Africa thrives. We have a common interest in supporting each other to unlock Africa’s full potential. Platforms like these allow us to connect, share, network, unlock opportunities and ensure we move from talking to taking action.
