Africa's new challenge: crossing the digital divide. (Special Focus: IT Africa).

Africa is a developing continent in all respects, and the lack of first world information and communication technology (ICT) is creating a rift between it and the developed world. Some have gone as far to say that there is now a fourth world economy, that of Cyherspace. The African continent strives under a paucity of ICT infrastructure with many people having never even made a telephone call.

The challenge is to roll out a telecommunication infrastructure specifically suited to Africa. The target is to harness ICT and leapfrog Africa into the new century by bypassing the unnecessarily long and cumbersome adoption cycle, and implementing a solution that works now and has the capacity to handle future developments.

Crossing the divide - an enormous task'

Ramrodding Africa's accelerated ICT programme is the Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC) represented by Ethiopia, Burundi, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Cameroon, Benin and Sudan. The MOC is an open committee of African Ministers of Communication. The countries selected by the PATU (Pan-African Telecommunications Union) Conference to constitute the core of the MOC are: Egypt, Libya, Gambia, Ghana, Niger, Sudan, Uganda, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

In the view of MOC chairperson and South Africa's Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, an "enormous task lies before Africa's Ministers responsible for communications to ensure that Africa does not continue to be on the wrong side of the digital divide." An important way of achieving that objective, notes Minister Matsepe-Casaburri is to use African expertise while, at the same time, developing Africa's ICT human resources.

There was considerable activity last month. The MOC was in session in early May meeting in Cairo, Egypt. A report on this meeting will be published in the July/August issue. Meanwhile, the newly elected President of Mali was scheduled to host the African Preparatory Conference on the World Summit on the Information Society in Bamako, Mali, on 28 - 30 May while President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal was expected to launch the African Sub Marine Cable Project (SAFESAT 3 WASC) in Dakar, Senegal on May 27.

"African ministers responsible for communications need to have structured ways of addressing the challenges that lie before them in respect of the incorporation of ICT's in Africa's development agenda," says Minister Matsepe-Casaburri. "This is particularly important given the convergence of technologies and the phenomenon of globalisation."

To speed up this process, mechanisms have been put in place that enable African Ministers to action the requirements of this vital industry. MOC will ensure that Africa meets the challenge. Since the first MOC meeting in April, 1999, much work has been done and progress achieved in advancing PATU's strategic African Connection plan. (PATU was the Pan African Telecommunications Union, since changed to ATU, African Telecommunications Union)

IT infrastructure vital - Mbeki

"Telecommunications infrastructures and services play an essential role both in the modernisation and social development of a nation," the South African President, Thabo Mbeko, points out. "They have become indispensable in enabling countries to compete on equitable terms in an international community, which is now governed by interdependence and by the imperative of a global economy.

The 56 countries comprising the Africa telecommunications region offer a diverse range of business and tremendous scope for expanding both basic and advanced telecommunications services. Driven by the need to extend to all South Africans access to services previously denied to the majority and to integrate the country into the world economy, South Africa has made dramatic improvements in its telecommunications service.

"In April, 1994, when we achieved democracy, South Africa had about 3.5m main telephone lines in operation and cellular telephony was in its infancy," notes Mbeki. "Just six years later, in the year 2000, we had 5.5m main telephone lines and 5.3m mobile subscribers." In a year, cellular subscribers grew to 10m with a teledensity of 25%.

Much accomplished, much yet to be done

For the moment, much still needs to be done to bring Africa's telecoms infrastructure and penetration up to the standard taken for granted in industrialised economies. At the beginning of the new millennium, Africa, home to one in eight of the world's people, had only one in 50 of the world's fixed telephone lines, one in 60 of the world's mobile cellular subscribers, one in 70 of the world's PCs and one in 100 of the world's Internet users.

While progress in bridging the so-called 'digital divide' has up to now been slow, there are real grounds for optimism. Many countries in the region have already embarked on the road to sectoral reform, and foreign investment is being actively encouraged as privatisation and market liberalisation are progressively introduced across the continent. At the same time, new technologies and strategies are helping bring affordable access within reach of many more of Africa's people.

In reviewing South Africa's march to telecommunications proficiency, Minister Matsepit-Casaburri noted that when the democratic dispensation was born in 1994, the South African economy had reached stagnation as a failure of the apartheid policies. "At the same time," she says, "the economy was characterised by structural problems arising from the concentration of the centres of production in a few provinces to the benefit of the minority."

Managed liberalisatian, not big bang 

To address the apartheid legacy, the government had to undertake the transformation of the economy, including the telecommunications sector, the first step of which was the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that paved the way for the separation of policy, regulatory and operational functions. The Act also established the Universal Services Agency to roll out infrastructure to under-serviced areas. The government last year reviewed telecommunications policy to ensure it was in line with the needs of all sectors of society.

"Government has opted for the managed liberalisation of the sector instead of a 'big bang'," reports Matsepe-Casaburri. The new policy provides for the introduction of a second national operator in 2002, and a third operator in 2005, pending a feasibility study to be conducted in 2004."

As part of the drive to allow all South Africans to participate in the national economy, up to 30% shareholding in all operations was set aside for empowerment purposes. Women and disabled people were also targeted as empowerment beneficiaries. Other imbalances were addressed through participation diversification. Small, medium and micro-size enterprises (SMMEs) would be licensed to provide services where teledensity is at 5% or less. In these areas, SMMEs are allowed to provide voice-over Internet protocol Internet services.

The policy also requires all operators to contribute to the Universal Service Fund and to implement the universal service obligations that will create an e-literate society.

Towards an e-literate society

"Government believes that the creation of an e-literate society is in the interest of both the public and private sectors," says Matsepe-Casaburri. "With the advent of electronic commerce, business and government stand to benefit a lot from a wider participation of all sectors and communities."

The cross-cutting nature of information and communications technology (ITC) makes it a Nepad priority and accelerates the need for a number of issues, including:

* The development of a new policy and regulatory mechanisms to attract foreign and local direct investment and promote universal access.

* Infrastructure development.

* The development and promotion of African content.

Unity is the key, maintains the Minister.

"Addressing issues together with the resolutions and programmes of the African Telecommunications Union and those of other regional blocks will cement our drive to create a sector that addresses the needs of all the peoples of Africa," she says.

In a number of African countries, including South Africa, Uganda, Botswana and Cote d'Ivoire, cellular mobile uptake has been so rapid that mobile phones now outnumber their fixed-line counterparts. The prepaid system has increased accessibility to a point where prepaid subscribers now account for 50% of all cellular users in fast-growing markets such as South Africa and Egypt.

Significantly, the drive by foreign operators to tap into new cellular markets and opportunities is finally helping overturn Africa's chronic shortage of investment funds for telecoms development. At the end of 2000, 18 of the 33 UN-designated Least Developed Countries in Africa had already awarded licences to cellular operators with one or more foreign investors.

In addition, widespread liberalisation of mobile markets across the continent is opening up investment opportunities for fast-moving local operators who can trade on their experience in local markets to expand operations to other countries within the region.

Governments' ability to raise much-needed capital through mobile licence fees is also providing a substantial boost to many countries' telecoms expenditure funds, creating a healthy demand for new equipment to upgrade ageing infrastructure and extend services to underserved areas.

From a ripple to an Internet wave

Even though Africa is causing little more than a ripple in the Internet pond, waves are in the making: only one of the continent 56 ITC countries are not directly connected to the Internet superhighway. Penetration figures for Africa are, however, skewed strongly in favour of wealthier nations like Seychelles (6.3%), Mauritius (4.6%), South Africa (4.2%) and Cape Verde (1.25%) with uptake in lower income countries such as Sudan, Niger, Benin and Chad at tinier fractions.

Right now, the biggest hurdles to faster connectivity are money and the lack of infrastructure. Service costs around $50 a month - a month's income in many African countries. A number of initiatives, like the ITU's Electronic Commerce for Developing Countries and USAID's Leland Initiative Africa Global Information Infrastructure Project are working to help alleviate these and other problems through resource-pooling, network capacity sharing and the fostering of a competitive environment for Internet service provision.

On 28 May 2001, African Ministers responsible for telecommunications adopted a joint strategy for bridging the digital divide that separates the North from the South and urban areas from rural areas. Known as the Yaounde Declaration, the strategy is one of several initiatives adopted in recent years by the African plenipotentiaries and by other multilateral meetings.

"It reflects in particular the active solidarity now breathing new vigour into the continent," notes Paul Nkoue Nkongo, Cameroon Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, "and a new awareness - a strategic departure from earlier initiatives. It embodies the continent's economic vision: New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)."

Through the Yaounde Declaration, Africa is appealing with one voice to decision-makers, firms, equipment manufacturers, funding agencies and information technology specialists to ensure that the right solution is found "to close once and for all the huge gulf in the rate of penetration of information technologies in daily life that separates the people of the North from those of the Southern hemisphere, and Africa in particular", states Nkongo.

What prompted the appeal was "the meagre result" yielded by Bretton Woods instigated efforts at restructuring the telecommunication sector, in spite of the enormous efforts undertaken in vain by African states.

The Buenos Aires Action Plan (BAAP) set a target for the developing countries of five telephone lines per 100 inhabitants in urban areas and one line per 10,000 inhabitants in rural areas.

The revolutionary growth of mobile telephony in 2001 still leaves Africa with as few as 15m subscribers, and the Internet benefits barely 4m users.

In Nkongo's view, the international community should be made aware of the limited results so far and, at the same time, to the radical change taking place in the African mindset.

"The concept of democracy has spread throughout the continent, overthrowing the established order and challenging traditional values. People are constantly making painful sacrifices as they cope with economic crises and structural adjustment programmes, impoverished as they are by falling prices of agricultural goods and armed conflict destroying the meagre infrastructures in place today.

"The West has an historic and humanitarian duty to support, without any new conditions, the elimination of the digital divide, as advocated by the Yaounde Declaration," Nkongo maintains.

"With the necessary resolve, a digital Africa can be built and will give globalisation greater coherence. The Yaounde Declaration is both a rational and an emotive plea from a continent in search of equity and fairness in the development of ICTs." says Nkongo.

Unique ICT opportunities

An important role of the MOC is to address the dichotomy between the basic needs of the mainly rural population and the high-tech demands of the commercial sector. Companies need a first world ICT infrastructure to be able to operate in the world market, yet many of the population do not yet have access to a telephone. This creates a unique environment for implementing ICT policy. It has become imperative for government and the private sector to work closely together to solve this quandary.

The provision of greater access to information will create the market drive necessary to make ICT implementation affordable and sustainable. Without affordability and sustainability, the technological revolution will evade Africa completely. It is therefore necessary to examine exactly which technologies will offer both of these key requirements.

According to George Debbo, Technical Director of Marconi Communications, Africa is still on the development path in providing universal access to basic voice services. "This, unfortunately, creates an environment where broadband initiatives receive less priority. With the majority of the population needing basic voice services, it is unlikely that the market for broadband has reached critical mass. Yet it is impossible to ignore the many benefits that broadband has to offer," he explains.

Delicate balance

The solution lies in managing the seemingly disparate goals of promoting universal access and implementing advanced telecoms networks and services. South Africa seeks both to increase the degree of universal access and promote utilisation of new technologies and services in support of commercial activities that enhance national economic growth and global competitiveness. It is a delicate balance between liberalisation and control in the telecoms sector that advances both goals.

The importance of ICTs for development and their relevance for other spheres such as education, health, agriculture and the growth of the economy in general is not always obvious.

In order to clearly establish this link and incorporate ICTs in the broader economic planning as well as to the development of the other sectors, the MOC has convened an ICT for Development Forum, whose broad objectives are to plan the incorporation of ICTs into the broader economic planning of countries in Africa, to advance the inclusion of ITC programmes into such other sectors as education, health, agriculture and tourism, and to speed up the development of ICT infrastructure, applications and services in Africa.

"South Africa is slowly moving towards the objectives of universal access and advanced telecoms networks and services," says Debbo. "The end of Telkom's monopoly and the appointment of the SNO, as well as the booming cellular market should create the competition necessary to drive telecoms growth in both directions. Regulation by ICASA as an independent telecoms regulator cannot be overemphasised, and co-operation between both the public and private sector is crucial."

Telemedicine's global healthcare delivery

Lowered technology costs and the growth of telemedicine over the next five to 10 years could have a profound and revolutionary effect on the delivery of medical care throughout the world - if governments and medical authorities use the technology which is already freely available.

Telemedicine has the ability to bring medical care to all Africans, and transform the social and economic fabric of the largely poverty-stricken continent. Franklin Pieterse, Marketing Director at Marconi SA, says information and communication technologies can go a long way towards overcoming the problem of inadequate health services and geographical challenges which confound developing countries.

"Even in South Africa, which is relatively developed by African standards, some people are offered services comparable with the best in the world, while millions are without access to even the most basic services," he says.

Telemedicine is the use of technology to connect doctors, patients, medical staff, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, who may be separated by a few hundred metres or a few thousand kilometres, as a means of sharing knowledge, performing diagnostic procedures, and even providing treatment.

It includes delivering public health education information to people and places. It encompasses electronics, transmission networks, and medical equipment, supported by training people to use the technology effectively. Telemedicine uses a variety of transmission modes including ISDN, ATM, DSL, Satellite, Microwave, digital wireless, local wireline, and the internet.

Taking advantage of new developments in telecoms, developing countries can use the available technology to fundamentally change people's lives.

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RELATED ARTICLE: CALLING THE YOUNG

A feature of ITU Telecom Africa held in South Africa last year was the introduction of a youth forum where young people from across the continent were able to discuss ITC issues from their own perspectives as future leaders.

The idea behind the initiative is to sustain and advance telecommunications development in the new millennium and to fast track the younger generation, while increasing their self-reliance, stirring them into action and giving them a clearer idea of what the sector is all about. Ultimately, the aim is to help create potential leaders for the ITC workplace.

All ITU member states in Africa were invited to send delegates to the Youth Forum. Member states co-ordinated with national universities and higher technical institutes in their countries to identify and submit candidates via an essay competition. Once the winning candidates had been selected, winners' ceremonies were held in a number of ITU member states in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Youth Forum was structured into three session groups.

Roundtable sessions addressed technology, regulation and finance issues faced by African countries in the global economy. Update sessions highlighted specific technologies, such as third generation mobile communications and rural access application. Working group sessions focused on outcome-oriented discussions and recommendations.

UNIVERSAL SERVICE - CHALLENGE TO GOVERNMENTS

A strong challenge facing governments is the provision of telecoms services to rural and remote communities given that the cost is typically three to six times the usual capital expenditure. They could insist upon universal service obligations in an operator licence or insist on a contribution to a fund, used to finance the roll out of services. At the same time, cost, and how it affects various regional income levels must be confronted and overcome.

Regional economics and cost of technology will become critical to technology providers who are serious about working in Africa. Research shows that in some African countries the informal economy accounts for 75% of household income.

It has become imperative that this industry be serviced as African economies downsize cumbersome parastatals through privatisation and the informal economy absorbs much of the upstream economic activity. As this process develops, it will fundamentally change the economic ethos of many African countries and demand a corresponding communications structure.