Soulco takes over Siemens enterprise

Soulco Kenya has officially taken over the operations of Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEC) in East Africa, reports NYtimes.

The enterprise solutions provider plans to spend 20 million Kenyan shillings to upgrade the office, which will serve regional operations.

"Siemens is a world leader in telephony, but the industry's wide shift towards convergence of products and services in the field led to a strategic decision by the company to hive off its ICT division," said Soulco chairman Tony Verbeke.

Nigerian president Umaru Musa Yar'adua called for a definite roadmap to bridge the digital divide existing between Africa and the rest of the world, says TriumphNewspapers.

Addressing the sixth annual forum of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, Yar'adua said Africa still has a digital deficit despite the progress recorded in the ICT sector.

The president challenged the forum, which is pushing for a vibrant rural connectivity agenda in Africa, to face up to development challenges within the ambit of the commonwealth movement.

The World Bank, European Commission and African Development Bank announced investment commitments amounting to over $55 billion, with the ICT sector taking the lead, says BusinessdayOnline.

The announcement was made at the Connect Africa Summit which decided to bring forward ICT connectivity goals to 2012 to enable the achievement of the broader Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Commitments were made to interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband infrastructure and to strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012. Broadband and ICT services should be extended to all African villages by 2015.