Africa: ICT is a catalyst for African development - Forum

Highway Africa News Agency

Regulators and industry players in the ICT sector have identified the development of sound Information and Communication Technology (ICT) regulation as key to Africa's development agenda and said that ICT development should be regarded as catalysts for overall development.

Arising from a two-day forum on Telecommunications/ICT Regulation in Africa (FTRA-2007), which opened Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya, participants agreed that ICT stands the chance of leapfrogging the continent on its developmental strategies.

The forum was organized by the global ICT regulator, the Information Telecommunication Union (ITU) in collaboration with the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), and brought together African regulators and industry to share experiences and develop new approaches for ICT infrastructure-sharing and low-cost solutions to expand access to ICTs across the continent.

Speaking at the forum, Director General of CCK and chairman of the forum, Mr John Waweru, said that the gatheingr forms a formidable bloc in promoting accessibility in Africa, thus crucial for development on the continent.

"ICT is now considered basic infrastructure and it is absolutely vital to support economic growth, employment and broader development in Africa," he said.

Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, Mr. Sanjay Acharya, informed that the main theme of the forum, held for the eighth year running, was to stimulate the development of Africa's ICT infrastructure for important business, government and consumer applications and services that will, in turn, support employment and economic growth in the region.

"In particular, the regulators and industry participants examined options for sharing infrastructure," he said.

According to him, various utilities and telecommunications as well as ICT operators could exist in parallel infrastructure that, if shared, could reduce costs as well as prevent duplication and wasteful use of scarce resources.

Some of the issues that came up include the ability of policy makers and regulators to promote infrastructure sharing without jeopardizing competition and the benefits to consumers.

In addition, he said, the forum examined the possibility of sharing infrastructure and what effect it will have in minimizing the impact on the environment and what issues should be considered in the sharing of infrastructure and what the long-term implications are.

Other issues discussed at the forum focused on complementing the work of FTRA-2007, the Public and Private Sector Partnership forum in Africa that was held 4?5 June 2007.

Also speaking at the forum, ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Mr Sami Al-Basheer noted, "FTRA-2007 will help lay the ground work for the upcoming Connect Africa Summit to be held in Kigali, 29?30 October 2007."

Connect Africa aims to mobilize the human, financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure across the continent.

"Traditional business models do not work in all cases," he said, stressing that Africa needs to be creative and develop new ways of working together. ?Infrastructure-sharing, among other innovative approaches, will be the centre of focus at the Summit in Kigali," he concluded.