‘CONNECT AFRICA’ SUMMIT ENDS WITH PLEDGE TO LINK CONTINENT’S CAPITALS,

MAJOR CITIES BY 2012; TOTAL GLOBAL HOOK-UP TO FOLLOW

 

Problem Said to Be Policy, Not Technology; Governments Promise

Better Regulatory Environment as Private Sector Investment Offered

(Received from a UN Information Officer.)

KIGALI, 30 October -- The “Connect Africa” summit concluded today in Kigali with commitments to create the right regulatory environment from African leaders and pledges by private-sector leaders to invest in the continent’s communications sector.

Some 1,000 participants -- including six African Presidents, executives of information and communications technology (ICT) companies and heads of international development banks -- convened in the Rwandan capital to devise ways to improve Africa’s information and communications technology infrastructure, especially in relation to Internet broadband connectivity.

The technologies to connect the whole of Africa are available, said Craig Barrett, the Chair of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development and the Chairman of Intel Corporation.  “What we are dealing with here is not a technology problem.  The technology is ready to be delivered.  It is a question of policies, of creating the right environment.”

Mr. Barrett added that it was an implementation issue, a question of taking existing technologies, existing models, and implementing them in Africa, as they had been implemented in other parts of the world.

“ Africa needs cost-effective connectivity,” he said, because it was currently saddled with the highest connectivity costs in the world.  “All the universities of sub-Saharan Africa taken together pay $3 million per month in connectivity.  This money could be used more effectively elsewhere.”

Providing technology, connectivity and content was not a problem a single company or Government alone could solve, Mr. Barrett said.  There was a need for Governments and the private sector to work together.  African Heads of State should implement policies and create regulatory frameworks that would enhance the state of ICT in the continent.

“ Africa is open for business and looking for partnerships,” said Hamadoun Touré, the Mali-born Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  “Companies are ready to invest, and know they can make money here.”  He added that many African countries had the right regulatory environment in place.

The impact of information and communications technology was already significant, Mr. Touré said, particularly in the case of mobile phone usage.  Telecom companies were making profits, farmers were getting the information they needed, and teachers were receiving educational aid.  “Mobile phones even have an impact on democracy,” he said.  “During elections, people have used mobile phones to get election results fast, and in a transparent manner.”

The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who hosted the conference, said the technology was there, even the financial resources were there.  “We have to be decisive and make a political choice about how to tap into these possibilities,” he added.  The right policies and choices have to be made … for these technologies to become a part of the solution.”

Mohsen Khalil, Director of the World Bank Group’s Global ICT Department said the challenges were still significant.  It was important not to underestimate what had been accomplished, especially by the telecom industry.  Africa had jumped from 1 per cent to 20 per cent of telephone density within a few years.  “We must now take this to the next level, and replicate the model of mobile telephony,” he said.

Challenges ahead, Mr. Khalil said, included extending information and communications technology access to the poor, assisting Governments in utilizing the technology for services to the public and to business, and harmonizing the legal and regulatory environment in the continent.

Rwanda’s State Minister for Energy and Communications, Albert Butaré, stressed the importance of ICT infrastructure to connect more of Rwanda’s population, to improve capacity-building and training, and to utilize aspects of the technology such as e-commerce.  “Infrastructure is key, but we need to harmonize infrastructure and the legal and regulatory environment across countries,” he said.  ICT policies did not need to be unified in every detail, “but there are some core policies which should be agreed -– licensing, for example -- to allow countries to work together”.

Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang, who represented the United Nations Secretary-General at the conference said that with the entrepreneurial spirit of Africa’s private sector, the support of the international community and the commitment from Governments that had been expressed here, universal connectivity in Africa was no longer a utopian dream.

Mr. Sha reiterated the “strong desire and full commitment at the United Nations” to collaborate through the Global Alliance for ICT and Development in giving priority to the technology as an enabler in achieving the development goals.

Other partnerships were announced today at the Summit.  The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the African Development Bank (ADB) agreed to work together on interconnecting all African capitals and major cities with broadband infrastructure and on strengthening connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012.

The President of the Bank, Donald Kaberuka, announced that the African Development Bank had approved a $150 million loan for a pan-African cable -- the East African Submarine Cable System -- which would bring fast and inexpensive bandwidth to at least 23 African countries.  The system would run between South Africa and the Sudan, with six landing points along the way, he said.

“Connect Africa” was attended by the Presidents of Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Malawi and Senegal, together with 53 information technology ministers and 19 information technology companies, including Microsoft, Intel, Cisco and Ericsson.

The event was organized by the ITU, the African Union, the World Bank Group and the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, in partnership with the African Development Bank, the African Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Global Digital Solidarity Fund.

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For information media • not an official record