Africa's digital generation to drive ICT progress

Cosmas Zavazava, chief of Department for Projects and Knowledge Management in the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. [Photo source: ITU]

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Africa's performance in ICT development may lag behind but there is promise for better performance in the future.

This is according to Cosmas Zavazava, chief of department for projects and knowledge management in the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Unit (ITU).

Zavazava was reflecting on the regional results of the latest ICT Development Index (IDI). As a feature of the Measuring the Information Society Report (MISR), the IDI measures ICT development in 176 economies worldwide.

The ITU's 2017 findings show the majority of African nations still trail other economies in terms of IDI performance. The continent is also characterised by its high number of least developed countries (LDCs) and landlocked developing countries, which prevents direct access to the sea for submarine cables.

According to Zavazava, the average value for the African region in the IDI is 2.64 points, while in Europe it goes as high as 7.5 points. Only Mauritius ranks in the upper half of the global IDI distribution, he states.

The latest data further shows a widening gap between the developed and developing countries, particularly the LDCs, the majority of which are in Africa.

Despite this, Zavazava believes Africa's young digital population will be key contributors to ICT development.

In the past, the African region used to have political instability, but we have gone over the cliff and there is stability. In terms of policy, there is more political will on the part of the politicians and governments to encourage opening of markets and allow introduction of competition, he stated.

The proportion of people aged between 15 and 24 who are online is estimated to be about 70% worldwide, compared with only 40% of the population overall. This is good for Africa because according to United Nations reports, the continent has the youngest population ? so there is hope there, noted Zavazava.

Africa's growing generation is young and this region's young population is the youngest globally, Zavazava pointed out. "The uptake between 15 and 24 years is quite high. The number of start-ups and apps that are created in Africa shows there is innovation going on."

If you look at what happened with cellular in the late 90s to early 2000s, take-up was slow. On average, many of the LDCs had close to 1% per hundred inhabitants or below, he said.

"If you look at the growth now, you will see Africa has provided the fastest growth in mobile cellular, so it will happen. When you look at the IDI as a global measurement, it's not really telling the real story because countries are not starting from the same level of development."

The ITU is hosting its World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium in Hammamet, Tunisia, this week. The MISR, which features the IDI, was made public at this event yesterday.