Nepad lowers expectations

Johannesburg, 18 Feb 2009

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) broadband infrastructure project is under way, but measuring its progress is “complicated”, says the e-Africa Commission.

Policy and regulatory advisor for the Nepad e-Africa Commission Dr Edmund Katiti says in a continent with 54 countries, they can only hope to connect less than a third by the previously stated deadline. “If, say, only 15 countries are covered by 2015 - that will be a great achievement. We will then continue to look at connecting the rest of the countries as we go along.”

The e-Africa Commission is tasked with developing a broad Nepad ICT strategy and comprehensive action plan - covering areas of policy, legal requirements, regulations, logistics and socioeconomic factors - with the aim of accelerating the development of African connectivity.

The immediate concern of the commission is to find companies that can provide the undersea cable and the cross-border terrestrial network as soon as possible, Katiti says. As soon as that is finalised, work on countries that have signed and ratified the treaty, will begin immediately - but he declines to suggest possible timelines.

The ultimate objective of the project is to bring down the cost of communications in Africa and create continent-wide networks, jointly owned by entities within countries. He adds that, while communication is key and the commission “needs to build networks quickly”, if the proposed networks don't contribute to the development of the continent, they will not be completed rapidly.

Signed, sealed, delivered?

Currently, only 12 countries have signed the Kigali protocol, while another eight have ratified it. The protocol establishes the policy and regulatory frameworks for the project and sets out the details of the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) that will own, operate and maintain the Nepad network.

“The network will grow over time,” he says, dismissing notions that the lack of countries that have ratified the treaty will impact on the overall project.

According to Katiti, some countries still have issues with the cross-border nature of the network and feel it lessens their “national integrity” - but they will come round once the disadvantages of a territorial policy become evident.

In April 2008, potential investors were invited to consider investing in its Uhurunet project for a period of 15 to 20 years. Uhurunet is Nepad's $2 billion (more than R19 billion) submarine cable project, which will connect Africa. The cable would be 50 000km long and have a capacity of 3.84Tbps.

In November last year, the commission began its six-month terrestrial broadband study for its Umoja network. The study looks at existing fibre-optic links across 23 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, and determines what infrastructure exists in those countries. The study will be presented to prospective investors in the Nepad SPV. Umojanet services would also be leased or sold to licensed telecom operators in various countries.