The role played by information and communication technologies (ICTs) in national development has been recognized worldwide. ICTs are key to transforming traditional economies into information and knowledge-based economies
As a continent, our future and survival depends upon our willingness to harness the new information and communication technologies to accelerate our development. A nation unable to join this new economic order, unable to harness the power of ICT is effectively locked out of the new global economy, and forced to remain a marginal player on the world economic stage.
As a continent, we cannot join the new information revolution without a well developed technological infrastructure. Adequate ICT infrastructure to support the expansion and high level connectivity is needed for the rapid emergence of ICT on the continent.
Many African governments are now aware of the important role of ICTs in transforming economies in an increasingly knowledge-based global village. Consequently, several African countries, have developed comprehensive national policies and strategies to transform their nations into information knowledge societies.
However, when one looks at the global connectivity maps, it is immediately evident that Africa, the second largest continent on the planet is the least-connected part of the world. Without adequate ICT infrastructure to move information rapidly, the continent will be further marginalized.
No wonder, people like EY Amoako, former ECA boss describes the underdeveloped ICT infrastructure in Africa as the “Achilles hell” of Africa’s information society and called for the implementation of effective measures to improve upon the ICT infrastructure gap. This perspective is supported by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon when he said "we need to make our best efforts to bridge the digital gap.”
And, Hamadoun Toure, former Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has called for a Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa.
Africa needs to launch on a massive scale a regional or continent-wide Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plan geared toward increasing access to ICT infrastructure, reducing bandwidth costs, and facilitating access to the Internet.
We know several initiatives have been implemented geared toward addressing the technological infrastructure gap. For example, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Action Plan to connect all African countries to one another and, in turn, to the rest of the world through broadband fibre-optic submarine cables. At one of their meetings, the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) adopted the development of a broadband ICT network linking all countries in Africa to one another and in turn to the rest of the world as a top priority NEPAD project.
This is being facilitated through the NEPAD e-Africa Commission. Two regional networks-The NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network for Eastern and Southern Africa; comprising of a submarine segment, and a terrestrial segment, and The NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network for Central, West and North Africa-are being developed to facilitate this process.
The South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3/WASC) links Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route. 36 countries, including eleven from Africa - Angola Telecom, Camtel, Cote d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, Maroc Telecom, Nitel, OPT Benin, OPT Gabon, Sonatel, Telecom Namibia and Telkom South Africa.-are shareholders in the project.
Also, three North African countries - Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria – are connected by an undersea fiber-optic cable, South East Asia -Middle East Western Europe-3 (SEA/ME/WE-3. This network has 39 landing points in 33 countries and 4 continents from Western Europe (including Germany, England and France) to the Far East (including China, Japan and Singapore) and to Australia.
In addition to continent-wide initiatives, we know individual African countries have either launched or are in the process of launching their own national backbones. For example, Ghana recently launched a National Communication Backbone Infrastructural Project geared toward expanding its fibre network and telecommunications support.
And, initiatives by organizations such as Main One Cable Company, the African West Coast Cable, and Globacom Limited will enhance Africa’s connectivity to the rest of the world.
These projects have put the African continent on the global information map and helped bridged the digital gap between Africa and the rest of the world.
Despite these initiatives, there are still a number of technological, environmental, operational and financial bottlenecks constraining the rapid growth of Internet connectivity in Africa as compared to other regions of the world.
In most connected African countries, services are mainly limited to the urban centers, and usually only in capital cities. Very few Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in African countries have points-of-presence (PoPs) outside the cities. Rural connectivity still remains a major challenge.
We need to pull efforts at the national and regional level to address the connectivity gap to enable Africa reap the full benefits of the information society.
Dr. Osei Darkwa, President
Ghana Telecom University College
As a continent, our future and survival depends upon our willingness to harness the new information and communication technologies to accelerate our development. A nation unable to join this new economic order, unable to harness the power of ICT is effectively locked out of the new global economy, and forced to remain a marginal player on the world economic stage.
As a continent, we cannot join the new information revolution without a well developed technological infrastructure. Adequate ICT infrastructure to support the expansion and high level connectivity is needed for the rapid emergence of ICT on the continent.
Many African governments are now aware of the important role of ICTs in transforming economies in an increasingly knowledge-based global village. Consequently, several African countries, have developed comprehensive national policies and strategies to transform their nations into information knowledge societies.
However, when one looks at the global connectivity maps, it is immediately evident that Africa, the second largest continent on the planet is the least-connected part of the world. Without adequate ICT infrastructure to move information rapidly, the continent will be further marginalized.
No wonder, people like EY Amoako, former ECA boss describes the underdeveloped ICT infrastructure in Africa as the “Achilles hell” of Africa’s information society and called for the implementation of effective measures to improve upon the ICT infrastructure gap. This perspective is supported by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon when he said "we need to make our best efforts to bridge the digital gap.”
And, Hamadoun Toure, former Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has called for a Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa.
Africa needs to launch on a massive scale a regional or continent-wide Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plan geared toward increasing access to ICT infrastructure, reducing bandwidth costs, and facilitating access to the Internet.
We know several initiatives have been implemented geared toward addressing the technological infrastructure gap. For example, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Action Plan to connect all African countries to one another and, in turn, to the rest of the world through broadband fibre-optic submarine cables. At one of their meetings, the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) adopted the development of a broadband ICT network linking all countries in Africa to one another and in turn to the rest of the world as a top priority NEPAD project.
This is being facilitated through the NEPAD e-Africa Commission. Two regional networks-The NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network for Eastern and Southern Africa; comprising of a submarine segment, and a terrestrial segment, and The NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network for Central, West and North Africa-are being developed to facilitate this process.
The South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3/WASC) links Portugal and Spain to South Africa, with connections to several West African countries along the route. 36 countries, including eleven from Africa - Angola Telecom, Camtel, Cote d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, Maroc Telecom, Nitel, OPT Benin, OPT Gabon, Sonatel, Telecom Namibia and Telkom South Africa.-are shareholders in the project.
Also, three North African countries - Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria – are connected by an undersea fiber-optic cable, South East Asia -Middle East Western Europe-3 (SEA/ME/WE-3. This network has 39 landing points in 33 countries and 4 continents from Western Europe (including Germany, England and France) to the Far East (including China, Japan and Singapore) and to Australia.
In addition to continent-wide initiatives, we know individual African countries have either launched or are in the process of launching their own national backbones. For example, Ghana recently launched a National Communication Backbone Infrastructural Project geared toward expanding its fibre network and telecommunications support.
And, initiatives by organizations such as Main One Cable Company, the African West Coast Cable, and Globacom Limited will enhance Africa’s connectivity to the rest of the world.
These projects have put the African continent on the global information map and helped bridged the digital gap between Africa and the rest of the world.
Despite these initiatives, there are still a number of technological, environmental, operational and financial bottlenecks constraining the rapid growth of Internet connectivity in Africa as compared to other regions of the world.
In most connected African countries, services are mainly limited to the urban centers, and usually only in capital cities. Very few Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in African countries have points-of-presence (PoPs) outside the cities. Rural connectivity still remains a major challenge.
We need to pull efforts at the national and regional level to address the connectivity gap to enable Africa reap the full benefits of the information society.
Dr. Osei Darkwa, President
Ghana Telecom University College
