Retrieved from Allafrica News
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200203200684.html

Vanguard (Lagos)
By Okoh Aihe
March 20, 2002 
Posted to the web March 20, 2002 


An appeal has gone to African governments to free their information technology sectors from regulatory and legislative strictures in order to accelerate the growth of the sector in the continent. This is the view of African Telecoms experts who gathered last week in Accra, Ghanafor the Fourth African Telecom Summit.

Almost in a manner which reminds one of the Nigerian situation, Dr Yaw Osei-Amaoko of ITXC, U.S warned that a regulator which reports to the minister has little or no power. Mavis Ampah of African Connection Centre, South Africa, adds that a policy should be able to attract investors but if the policy looks good but on the ground there is chaos, investors will end up trying to cut corners.

Policies are important but implementation is key.

Both illustrate graphically the Nigerian situation where the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is being accused of subordinating itsfreedom to the Communications Ministry while both the policies of the NCC and the BPE on the other hand, are creating confusion in the telecoms sector. Nigerians who have to pay more for phones especially GSM are already feeling the pains.

Speakers warn here that such developments could be inimical to the sector because for investors what is on the ground is better than what is on paper.

Exploring the theme of Bridging the Digital Divide: Investment Opportunities in New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Applications in Africa, the speakers are unanimous that for any meaningful development to take place in the sector the various governments must overhaul their ICT sectors and in order to give incentives to both investors and ICT users.

But in doing this, Dr. Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Minister for Communication in South Africa, warned that in an attempt to close the gap between Africa and the developed world, we must ensure that we do not tie ourselves to old technologies as this will further aggravate the situation.

In a paper many described as radical, the minister observed that ICT is a potent tool for social political development but that development must not come at the expense of the people who need to benefit from it. The situation in her opinion demands therefore that African governments initiate a legislative and regulatory regime that will balance the needs of the people with those of the investors.

Secretary-General for African Telecommunication Union (ATU), Mr. Jan Mutal of Kenya noted that the continent must invest in capacity building in order to reap the abundant opportunities which are available in the ICT sector. We must stop being professional amateurs at international events, he challenged.

Mutal listed various developmental steps which the continent has taken to advance the ICT sector. Some of them are the decision to be part of the African Connection and the challenge recently by the African Union through NEPAD -New Partnership For African Development - to double its internet and telephone connectivity by the year 2005, among others.

He informed that although Africa has always taken these development decisions, such decisions have also been aided through co-operation with other international bodies and organisations. Perhaps almost as a way of confirming this, a representative of the European Community -EU - informed that his organisation has about 13.5 billion Euros for ICT devlopment in Africa in the next few years, saying that they were ready to go into discussions with various bodies on how to move the sector forward.

Moving the sector forward, according to Hon. G.H Mensah, Prime Minister of Ghana is the major challenge facing the continent saying that a situation where some children in the developed world can begin to press the electronic keyboard before they even know how to talk while a majority of our grown up children have never made a telephone call, is not acceptable. He observed that although Africa is confronted with the twin problems of huge investment and massive technology transfer, the continent should however eliminate some elementary problems which hinder developments.

For instance, in the whole of North America including the U.S and Canada, there is only one dialing tone while West Africa alone has 16. The Nigerian Minister of Communications, Dr. Haliru Mohammed and Engr. Ernest Ndukwe are some of the people who participated in this conference which is co-ordinated by a U.K-based Nigerian, Mr. Shola Taylor . Mr.

Taylor told the gathering that the conference which started a few years ago as a private sector initiative is now being supported by the governments of Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria, a development that best illustrates the continent s growing concern for ICT development.