Stockholm, Sweden – A digital agenda for Africa will make the broadband deployment and adoption message more actionable.
The overall aim of the agenda is to deliver bb to all citizens by 2020, in order to foster social and economic development, competition and investment in sub-Saharan Africa’s digital economy.
The document has been authored by Ericsson, which hopes to garner support from the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) as well as policy-makers within the various African countries to drive the agenda forward.
There are five pillars to help drive these goals, says Shiletsi Makhofane, head of strategy and communications at Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa.
The first is to harmonise spectrum policies. This is important to achieve interoperable networks, says Makhofane. “Different spectrums have a detrimental effect on consumers who will be unable to move between networks. It’s important to get that message out and create the awareness, as consumer protection starts here,” he says.
“Africa is going through a digital dividend, and we are seeing that the different states of different countries will have an impact on this, and places regional integration at risk.”
The second pillar is to accelerate infrastructure rollout. “To realise the growth potential of ICT, we need a structured way of facilitating network rollout,” Makhofane says. “This is a multi-stakeholder approach that’s needed.”
The industry needs to implement a light-touch regulatory environment, Makhofane adds. “Currently, some countries adopt a heavy-touch and prescriptive regulatory framework. Technology and service neutrality is the preferable approach in this regards, he adds, to allow vendors to deliver cost-effective services to citizens.
It is also important to incentivise innovation, Makhofane adds. This industry has created innovators and a wealth of creation. I think we need to create awareness that driving broadband to everyone it gives them to tools to drive the overall digital agenda goals.
Improving regional integration is the fifth pillar. “Africa needs to think broadly: ICT is no longer locked within borders. You need to think of Africa as a continent. This creates a market of 1-billion,” he says.
Africa is enjoying good growth rates in terms of GDP, with real growth in sub-Saharan Africa expected to exceed 5% for the next two years.
Figures show that Africa is enjoying good GDP growth but, while mobile telecoms is growing well, the number of Internet users in the region remains low, with projections reaching just 20% by 2018.
Mobile telecoms will reach about 98% of the population by 2018, but only 20% of the population is expected to have Internet access.
An important consideration is that Africa has a very youthful population. The challenge, says Makhofane, is to ensure these young people have jobs and are able to achieve their aspirations.
“We are seeing a lot of good things and a willingness to do things on the continent,” he says. “Are we doing enough? We can probably do more.”
A worrying trend indicates that just eight countries account for almost three-quarters of total consumer spending in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020. They are Uganda, Kenya, Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. For the whole region, consumer spending is expected to reach $939-billion by 2020.