The failure of African countries to prioritise broadband and include it in development strategies will only further weaken already struggling economies, says the World Bank.
According to a recent econometrics analysis of 120 countries, for every 10 percentage point increase in the penetration of broadband services, there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points.
The report cautions that, because broadband networks have the potential to contribute so much to economic development, they should be widely available at affordable prices and should become an integral part of national development strategies.
According to the report, among developing regions, countries in Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have the greatest capacity. With improved fibre-optic connectivity, some countries in South Asia are seeing a rise in international bandwidth, yet in terms of international bandwidth per capita, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are still well behind other regions.
Burundi, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau and Niger were at the bottom of the list, scoring the lowest in accessibility, affordability and usage of ICT.
“Access to new services, such as broadband, remains limited in developing countries. Yet the expansion of broadband networks plays a catalytic role in the development of trade and e-government. A large share of the population in these countries has yet to realise the potential of ICT for economic and social development,” the report states.
Price battles
According to the report, the growth effect of broadband is significant and stronger in developing countries than in developed economies, and the impact can be even more robust once penetration reaches a critical mass.
However, Africa continues to fight price battles. The average cost of Internet access and telephony services continues to be well above the world average, the report reveals. The gap in affordability is even more stark, with the report revealing the Internet price basket for sub-Saharan Africa was about 62% of average monthly per capita income, while it was less than 9% in all other developing regions.
The report states that, while countries in the sub-Saharan Africa have started to invest in IT infrastructure, the cost of fixed and mobile phone services and Internet services are still two to five times the average income, hampering uptake. It notes that, despite innovations in the fields of mobile banking, few people have access to broadband networks.
“The potential impact that ICT can have on individuals, businesses and governments depends largely on how policies are formulated and technology and markets evolve. Thus, it is important for countries to possess timely ICT data and benchmarks to facilitate policy-making that extends the reach of ICT and increases its development impact,” the report states.
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