Big plans fall through as Africa battles to get IT going

AMBITIOUS PLANS to create a knowledge economy across Africa are falling flat amid poor planning and a lack of support from governments.

This emerged at a ministerial conference hosted by the South African Department of Communications, in Johannesburg, last week. The conference acts as a preparation for the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit, which will take place in Addis Ababa, in January next year. The conference brought the African ministers together to discuss and come up with resolutions to address ICT challenges on the continent.

The theme of the 2010 AU Summit is Information and Communications Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development.

UPHILL BATTLE

Challenges, it seems, are plenty. Of the 11 flagship African Regional Action Plan on Knowledge Economy projects approved at a session of African ICT ministers meeting in Cairo last year, only three had progressed so far as to have funding approved. The other eight had simply not taken off. These were the latest in many ambitious ICT development plans that have failed to get off the ground in Africa.

Speaking at the recent ministers` conference, the Nigerian Minister of State, Information and Communications, Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, blames the failure on a lack of political will, as well as the inability of host counties to give counterpart support to the projects. He said African governments needed to propose workable and achievable ICT projects in order to overcome the challenges of non-implementation.

Bilbis added: "While mobile telephone connectivity has been very rapid in the continent, there still remain challenges of access to broadband services and Internet connectivity among our rural populace. The continent also faces the challenges of convergence and meeting up with the ITU digital broadcast switchover date of 2015. It also means the continent will have to face all the associated problems, which include but are not limited to: funding, proliferation of implementing strategies, political will, harmonisation and standardisation of equipment, among others."

BIG PLANS

South African Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda said the ministers had placed ICT as a top priority to accelerate development, eradicate poverty and improve service delivery. He added that previous commitments have come from the World Summit on Information Society, which aims to create an information society by 2015; and the Connect Africa goals, which intend to interconnect all African capitals and major cities with broadband infrastructure and improve connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012.

Other commitments that need to be addressed include the connection of African villages to broadband ICT services by 2015, and the implementation of community tele-centres and village phones, he added. Regulatory measures that promote affordable widespread access to broadband ICT services need to be enforced. Also on Africa`s wish list is a network of ICT Centres of Excellence in each sub-region of Africa, and ICT training centres in each country, to drive ICT skills development.

Nyanda attributed the slow rollout of key infrastructure programmes to the global economic meltdown, which has had a negative impact on foreign direct investment in Africa.

"It is time we mobilise locally available resources to implement continental ICT priority projects. We should look at strengthening our own financial institutions, such as the African Development Bank, the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund as well as the African Investment Bank. The strengthening of our investment and funding institutions will also assist in fast-tracking integration, particularly regional integration in the area of broadband infrastructure network.

"We wish to use the many opportunities presented by the migration to digital terrestrial television as vehicles to empower our communities with ammunition to defeat the immense social challenges that continue to characterise African states," Nyanda added.

AU Commissioner Professor Jean Pierre Ezin concluded: "Africa is still the least developed continent, with 28 of the 32 most indebted poor countries in the world. Out of every 1 000 people, only 15 have access to telephones. I want to stress that we share the conviction that ICT is an integral part of the development problems Africa is facing, because the world economy has become more globalised and knowledge-based.

"We have to work together, harmonise legal and regulatory frameworks and put infrastructure in place."