Introduction:
THE week-long affair at the African Union (AU) headquarters between Monday, December 2 and Friday December 6, 2013, may have ended, but the obvious display of confusion cannot be hidden among some concerned Africans, especially on why, at this era and age AU should be coming out with a 50 year plan for the continent.
According to some of the participants, in the past 50 years, there is no evident of a single plan that was introduced or proclaimed in the last five decades that could be said to have stood the taste of time, so why coming up with a 50-year plans, so to say.
The 2013 African ICT Week had as its theme: “Promoting Pan-Africanism, African Renaissance through ICT towards AU 2063 Vision” which sought to x-ray the uniqueness of the 50th anniversary, which certainly offers opportunity to pay special tribute to the generation of Pan-Africanists and the founding fathers of the AU, who in their wisdom and foresight, laid a solid foundation for the unity and solidarity of Africa.
Also, the 2013 edition of ICT Week aimed at celebrating 50 years of achievements in ICT in Africa; discussing the challenges of ICT development in Africa; discussing Internet Governance issues; considering the Future and Trends of ICT on the continent; engaging with ICT stakeholders.
The vision statement:
Thus, the African ICT week expectedly drew attention to the values of ICT and specifically promotion of the use of ICT and outline the vision of the African Union in building a vibrant knowledge economy and information society for Africa.
However, some of the expected outcomes include the compilation and documentation of the major ICT achievements and challenges in Africa, encompassing lessons learned and recommendations.
In addition, expectation is on input to the policy and regulations for cross border infrastructure and continental service providing, as well as Africa’s position on Internet Governance, on the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS+10) and World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC).
Further, the week-long event was anticipated to fine-tune the AU-V63 on ICT by setting up regular consultation platforms at executive level with Private Sector (Continental Services and Technology Providers), United Nations (UN) and AU Specialized Institutions such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Universal Postal Union (UPU), African Telecommunication Union (ATU), and Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), European Union and the Brazil, Russia, India and China also known as (BRIC) among others.
Africa must build trust on ICT use:
In her welcome address to the participants, the representative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Ms Fatina Denton, task Africans, saying that “We must build trust to deepen ICT use in Africa.
And for the AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim (Mrs), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made significant contributions to the growth of the continent. Hence, AU has adopted policies that make ICT relevant to the society, moreso on the participation of African women.
She highlighted some achievements of African Union to include its electronic transaction policy, facilitating the building of a fibre and satellite network as well as training of more than a thousand on ICT capacity building, in addition to receiving the reaccreditation of the .Africa from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
“We have received a reaccreditation of .Africa after a long battle, and will improve the African presence in cyber space,” she declared.
AU to leverage on IGF:
She also noted that this is a time for critical changes, especially for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), saying that Africa should not stay away from IGF, but rather should contribute and join the AU so that together the continent could develop Africa by connecting Africa via capital cities.
This, she said, could be done by “Africans taking our destinies in our hands means mobilising Africans for the renaissance.”
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Michali Berathon noted that since Tunisia 2005 on WSIS, member states have chosen to celebrate African ICT week. Pointing out that the government of Ethiopia has recognised the importance of ICT, hence it has taken various steps to ensure access and affordability.
On eGovernment, the deputy Prime Minister said that Ethiopia now has an ePortal hosted in various languages.
Equally speaking on the session on opportunities and challenges via ICT the panelists made up Dawit Bekele of the Internet Society (ISOC), Pierre Dandjinou, Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement for Africa at ICANN, Mr. Adiel Akplogan, the chief executive officer of AfriNIC and Secretary General of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), Mr. Younouss Djibrine, definitely spoke to the topic.
Modernising African Post with ICT:
The first to take the stand was Secretary General of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), Mr. Younouss Djibrine, who noted that the post in Africa has not been static as most Africans and investors were made to believe and has since moved on with trends, mostly recognizing ICT as a leveraging tool.
“Presently, what obtains is that the era of reforms and new technological innovations have brought about wide-ranging changes in the business environment,” he said, stressing that the Post are now highly diversified and being modernised, thanks to ICT.
He also said there is Postal Technology Centre that provides ICT solutions to Universal Postal Union members across Africa, of which the Universal Postal Union (UPU) currently has development plans for Africa, including the launch of International Postal System (IPS) in 39 African countries between 2009 and 2012.
For 2013 through 2016, PAPU scribe told participants that there are three levels of priority identified for Africa with all of the key projects having an ICT component.
He cited for instance, the Postal Supply Chain, which is UPU eCommerce framework, pointing out that they believe eCommerce will be an opportunity for growth in Postal Services, insisting that 50 years from now the Post wants to improve on services that are cost effective and better too.
Government, he said, must maintain its role as key driver of postal services, such as financial inclusion, mobile networks in rural areas, and correct addresses.
The 23 Broadband plans:
The ATU Secretary General, Soumaila Abdoulkarim in a joint paper with Mr. Andrew of ITU Regional Director office in Addis Ababa, noted that only 23 members of African countries currently have broadband plan, including Nigeria.
Abdoulkarim who spoke on behalf of the duo, said that ITU and ATU are working jointly in Connect Africa initiative, with four pillars for development of ICT in Africa over the past 20 years;a
Discussing the role of Internet Numbers on the continent, the chief executive officer, AfriNIC, the African Internet Number Registry based in Ebele City, Mauritus, Mr. Adiel Akplogan, disclosed that they have over 20 Internet exchanges in Africa till date, whereas the Internet Protocol version Four (IPv4) number resources gained 10 million allocations between 1993 and 2004, noting that it has since grown by 83 per cent in use in South Africa, while 40 countries have 200 networks between 2005 and 2013, thereby increasing the update to 47 million allocations, with South Africa still top on nation’s allocations with 33 per cent among 54 countries.
“Today, we have 289 networks with IPv6, 35% network penetration, 48 countries with an IPv6 prefix and operators are embracing IPv6 in Africa,” he declared, revealing that 22 Exchange points are in operation, 19 copy of root server in Africa, 3 AfriNIC Anycasts with 110 Gb/S, even as there is plans to deploy more than 20 in 2014. Urging African leaders to think more and have financial good fund for Research and Development.
Africa Needs own ICT strategies:
Mr. Pierre of ICANN told the audience that Africa must trust its country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) to make progress in the use of ICT for development, just as Africa needs to develop its own strategies.
He advised Africans to see Internet differently by envisaging value in laying of cables and fibres optics across the continent of Africa, even as he insisted that the continent must develop its unique languages, which must be universally accepted, noting that the continent has over 200 languages.
He mentioned the likes of Mymusic.com.ng as some of the gains for Africa on the internet, advocating for local content to drive the use of ccTLDs on the continent.
Kigali was singled out for commendation by Pierre, who said its development of infrastructure, particularly in ICT was different, because the country was developing policies, and implementing same. He pointed out that businesses should be developed around mobile broadband via smart infrastructure, just as the national and regional broadband rollout strategies have become imminent for the continent and sub-regions.
Financial vote for Internet development:
African leadership, he said, should take interest in the development of Africa, just as Africa Union should have a financial vote for Internet.
For the Regional Bureau chief for ISOC Africa, Mr. Dewit Bekele, was excited that progress has been made since 2000, asserting “In year 2000 the Economist called Africa dark continent, but today the story has changed.”
Today, Bekele said, Africa has 80 per cent telephone penetration, less than 5 per cent have access to computers, whilst 14 per cent have smart phones and 16 internet access and now the Economist calls Africa the rising continent instead of dark continent.
In 2020 instead of 2063, he foresees universal telephone access; near universal internet access, high rate of broadband access, and near universal access to a computing device.
Bekele was quick to stated that there will be some challenges in attaining the aforesaid, comprising that
Internet will still not be affordable for most Africans, because Africa still does not have what he described as an ICT industry, mainly because; Africa exchanges traffic outside Africa, “Africa does not rank well in education, Africa scores very low in Research and Development.”
Real integration for ICT industry:
Africa Union and Regional Economic Commissions (RECs) as well as member states, he advised should work on real integration of its ICT infrastructure, namely the Internet Exchange Points, Integrated networks for the development of African content and application, which will now pave the way for an African ICT industry, so as to improve the quality of education, access and connectivity.
“Africa must do everything to ensure that innovators benefit from their innovations from Africa,” he declared.
Submission:
Frankly, most African participants agreed with the European Union Minister for Science and Technology, Mr. Stephane who said that they do not have agenda for 2063, but for 2020, which is in the next seven years, that a shorter agenda setting is usually more acceptable and adaptable because its manageable in terms of review and projections.
Like a Tanzanian participant asked, how many of those making today projection for AU in 2063 will be there to see what it will look like, moreso when technologies change on daily basis. Hence, the AU vision 2063, may not after all be visionless. Yet, steps for shorter period of projections is encouraged and activated if Africa must move beyond day dreaming.
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