SA's neighbour, Botswana, has initiated a process that Southern African governments hope will accelerate mobile access to an additional 300 million citizens in sub-Saharan Africa - and ultimately create millions of jobs.
Vice-president of Botswana, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe, on Friday convened a meeting with the GSMA and ministers representing the governments of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, to agree on common priorities to accelerate the roll out of mobile broadband in the region, with the view of creating an additional 3.2 million jobs for Sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.
The GSM Association (GSMA) has positioned Africa as the world's second-largest mobile market by connections after Asia and the fastest growing mobile market in the world.
The African ministers welcomed the positive impact of mobile on their digital economies. The mobile ecosystem, says the GSMA, currently contributes 6.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and could grow to 8.2% by 2020 with the right policies to encourage investment.
"Equally, mobile penetration could increase to 93% of the region's population by 2020, bringing mobile access to an additional 300 million citizens."
Closing the divide
The ministers agreed to a series of measures laid out in a communiqu'e, including the creation of a joint task force to co-ordinate the efforts of governments, regulators, mobile operators and the GSMA; a manifesto of digital inclusion; a review of policy and regulation; an e-government plan; and a GSMA-developed capacity building programme.
Nonofo Molefhi, minister of transport and communications in Botswana, says the provision of universal broadband access is vital to driving economic growth and improving the quality of life in Botswana and across Southern Africa. "With greater coordination between regional governments and between the public and private sectors, mobile broadband can play a critical role in closing the digital divide."
Tom Phillips, chief government and regulatory affairs officer, congratulated the governments of Southern Africa on their commitment to provide an environment supportive of investment in mobile broadband.
Phillips says Friday's meeting created a solid foundation for further cooperation between the public and private sectors. "The meeting demonstrated the close alignment of all parties regarding the goal of providing universal access to broadband services."
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