African governments and institutions have to work closely with people and firms to create a proper environment for competition if the continent is to build a healthy knowledge economy.
This was one of the findings of an ICT-focused workshop at the Conference on Knowledge for Africa`s Development, held in Johannesburg this week.
The conference, organised by the World Bank, SA`s Department of Science and Technology and Finland`s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, was attended by industry and educational leaders, as well as government officials from throughout Africa.
Summarising the findings of the workshop on the role of ICT in creating a knowledge economy, Am'erico Muchanga, director of Eduardo Mondlane University`s Centre for Informatics in Mozambique, said regulatory and infrastructure issues needed to be addressed to improve the role of ICT in strengthening business performance.
In addition, the workshop recommended that each country in Africa adopt a national ICT policy strategy.
The workshop also recognised that while donors could play a useful role in facilitating policy and strategy, ultimately solutions were local and contextualised.
"There is a need for risk taking and commitment to bring about change," Muchanga said.
Service provision
The workshop also found there was a need in Africa to separate infrastructure ownership and services provision.
"When ownership and services are incorporated in the same companies, experience shows it reduces the impact of the infrastructure," he said. He cited as an example the SAT-3 submarine communications cable linking Portugal and Spain with SA, with landing points in various West African countries.
While the capacity of the cable was enormous, only a fraction of that capacity was being used.
"Infrastructure providers should not be the service providers," he said.
While Africa was a leader in business incubation, governments needed to do more to foster ICT development through supporting small initiatives through policy strategies and incentives.
Governments should also outsource services if they wanted to increase access to ICT.
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