Mothibi Ramusi, CIO, National Lotteries Commission (NLC)

If any organisation epitomises the need for being ‘always on’, it is the NLC. If systems are down, the distribution of funds and the income-generating moment will be negatively affected and potentially brand impacting.

For the NLC, the responsibility for infrastructure and enterprise uptime, service availability, cybersecurity and ensuring good ICT governance rests in the lap of its CIO, Mothibi Ramusi, and his team.

“All grant applicants, service providers and NLC staff need to be protected from multiple factors. Gathered information is always safe-guarded and protected, to comply with legislatives such as POPIA. Their legitimate work should not be undermined by those who will fraudulently try to extract money from us,” says Ramusi.

“We are in a data economy and data analytics has become crucial to the management of monies distributed; the accuracy of data mining and statistics has become much more accepted, with more credible correlations and statistics. “There are still challenges, depending on the types of beneficiary projects we are involved in. Load shedding, for example, has stifled the growth of community projects and undermines the agility at which many projects can progress, impacting on South Africa’s economy.

Mothibi Ramusi, CIO, “Lack of connectivity also means the level of innovation we are supporting cannot be demonstrated in some areas, which is one of the reasons we have partnered to work with MTN for the provision of reliable, cost-effective and safe mobile communications in support of the NLC business. It is an imperative to manage the cost of communications to remove the barriers to development.”

Ramusi says the NLC is able to arm its inspectorate through use of a GIS to conduct pre-risk assessment of an applicant’s profile inclusive to locations where there has been an application to fund a project, such as an early childhood centre, to help avert fraud. “With MTN’s nationwide connectivity, instant reporting can be brought in centrally and ICT extends beyond voice into data.”

More flexibility is now required from policy-makers, says Ramusi. South Africa is restructuring itself and there is light at the end of the tunnel – with opportunities available, but political will that wants digital change needs industry and public sector support.

Integrating technology

Ramusi says his role has changed, saying: “Yes, I am an academic, but it is about how you articulate and integrate the plan and put the strategy in place.

As CIOs, we’ve been forced to become less tech and more understanding of the impact ICT has on the business. “My focus is guided by the business and the requisite governance compliance, simultaneously looking for technology solutions to enable company improvements, close audit inefficiencies and strengthen cybersecurity. I also need to strengthen relationships with other organs of state and ensure modernisation in smart ways.

“My advice to up-and-coming ICT professionals is to complement their academic backgrounds through collaboration with industry parameters, grasping personal development and knowledge opportunities and not boxing themselves into a particular environment.”

Ramusi provides mentorship to youth beyond ICT but in other themes ranging from entrepreneurship, leadership, business development and modelling.

“What gets me up in the morning includes my walking into a warm, mixed and funky team, with the opportunity to keep making my business highlights an integral part of my personal ones,” he concludes. 

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