African ICT and communications ministers again called for the bridging of the digital divide, during a ministerial conference held in Johannesburg this week.
The conference was in preparation of the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit, to be held in Addis Ababa, in January next year.
The conference involved most of the 53 African Union member states, providing a platform for ministers to discuss and seek resolution to ICT challenges on the continent.
Promises, promises
Nigerian minister of state, information and communications Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis said only three of the 11 African Regional Action Plan on Knowledge Economy-approved projects, announced a year ago, were identified for funding, while the remaining eight projects did not take off.
He blamed this on lack of political will, as well as the inability of host counties to give counterpart support to the projects.
Bilbis said African governments need to propose workable and achievable ICT projects in order to overcome the challenges of non-implementation.
“While mobile telephone connectivity has been very rapid on the continent, there still remain challenges of access to broadband services and Internet connectivity among our rural populace. The continent also has 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.”
ICT to eradicate poverty
South African communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda blamed the slow roll-out of key infrastructure programmes on the global economic meltdown, which has had a negative impact on foreign direct investment in Africa.
Nyanda said: “It is time that 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.”
Nyanda pointed to South African president Jacob Zuma's declaration that the fight against poverty remains the cornerstone of government business, and that the challenge is how the technical sector will respond to the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014.
“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 said the ministers have placed ICT as 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.
According to Nyanda, other commitments that need to be addressed include the connection of African villages to broadband ICT services by 2015, and implementation of community telecentres and village phones. Regulatory measures that promote affordable widespread access to broadband ICT services need to be enforced. In addition, the establishment of a network of ICT centres of excellence in each sub-region of Africa and ICT capacity-building and training centres in each country will drive ICT skills development.
AU commissioner professor Jean Pierre Ezin highlighted some of the challenges that Africa still has to overcome: “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.
“The experts of the various countries and partner institutions have worked to ensure that the recommendations and decisions have been submitted to the heads of state for adoption. We have to work together, harmonise legal and regulatory frameworks and put infrastructure in place.”
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