UNICTTF III/2002/13

 

Advance Unedited Copy

 

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa – A Status Report

 

 

 

 

 

UN ICT Task Force

“Bridging the Digital Divide in the 21^st Century”

 

Presented to the

 

Third Task Force Meeting

United Nations Headquarters

30 September – 1 Oct 2002

 

Prepared By Mike Jensen¹

 

 

 

 

 

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa -

A Status Report

 

OVERVIEW

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has grown relatively rapidly in most urban areas in Africa. Five years ago, only a handful of countries had local Internet access, now it is available in every capital city. In the same period more mobile cell phones were deployed on the continent than the number of fixed lines laid in the last century. Hundreds of new local and community radio stations have been licensed, and satellite TV is now also widely available. 

However, the digital divide is still at its most extreme in Africa, where the use of ICTs is still at a very early stage of development compared to other regions of the world. Of the approximately 816 million people in Africa in 2001, it is estimated that only²:

·1 in 4 have a radio (205m)

·1 in 13 have a TV (62m)

·1 in 35 have a mobile phone (24m)

·1 in 40 have a fixed line (20m)

·1 in 130 have a PC (5.9m)

·1 in 160 use the Internet (5m)

·1 in 400 have pay-TV (2m)

 

Sub-Saharan Africa, along with South Asia, remains at the bottom of the list of developing regions in Internet usage surveys around the world, while South Asian Internet use is growing more rapidly (see Table 1).

 

Table 1: Internet Users as percentage of Total Population

 

Region	1998	2000
United States	26.3	54.3
High-income OECD (excl.US)	6.9	28.2
Latin America and the Caribbean	0.8	3.2
East Asia and the Pacific	0.5	2.3
Eastern Europe and CIS	0.8	3.9
Arab States	0.2	0.6
Sub-Saharan Africa	0.1	0.4
South Asia	0.04	0.4
World	2.4	6.7

Source: NUA Publishing (www.nua.ie)

The divide between urban and rural areas is even greater. Most of the services and users are concentrated in the towns, while the majority of Africans are scattered in small communities spread-out across the vast rural areas. Very limited diffusion of the telecommunication networks into rural areas (often over 75percent of the country's telephone lines are concentrated in the capital city) and irregular or non-existent electricity supplies are a common feature and a major barrier to use of ICTs, especially outside the major towns. Furthermore, most tax regimes still treat computers and cell phones as luxury items, which makes these almost exclusively imported items all the more expensive, and even less obtainable by the majority. Although there have been notable efforts in some countries to reduce duties on computers, however communications equipment and peripherals are still often charged at higher rates.

Another systemic factor is that the road, rail and air transport networks are limited, costly to use and often in poor condition, resulting in barriers to the increased movement of people and goods, needed both to implement and support a pervasive ICT infrastructure, but also for the increased economic and social activity which would be stimulated through greater use of ICTs. Congested border posts and visa requirements add to these difficulties.

Table 2: African Internet Statistics 2002

Country	Dialup	International	Population	GDP/Capita	Cities with
	Internet	Outgoing Bandwidth	Millions	USD	POPs
	Subscribers	Kbps	2000	1999	(Points of Presence)
Africa	1492535	1409100	769,66	1207,5	283
ALGERIA	45000	12000	30,08	1442	1
ANGOLA	16000	5126	12,09	1684	3
BENIN	4500	2100	5,78	374	1
BOTSWANA	20000	14000	1,57	3252	11
BURKINA FASO	4700	256	11,31	199	1
BURUNDI	300	512	6,46	159	4
CAMEROON	7000	9000	14,31	617	2
CAPE VERDE	2456	1024	0,41	876	1
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC	700	64	3,48	276	1
CHAD	900	64	7,27	149	2
COMOROS	491	64	0,66	382	7
CONGO	200	128	2,79	833	5
COTE D'IVOIRE	13000	6000	16,2	767	13
D.R CONGO	4500	1024	49,3	400	1
DJIBOUTI	850	2048	0,62	846	6
EGYPT	100000	535000	65,98	1195	1
E. GUINEA	200	64	0,43	668	1
ERITREA	2500	512	3,58	161	1
ETHIOPIA	6500	8200	59,65	103	5
GABON	5000	16384	1,17	5121	7
GAMBIA	3000	1024	1,23	284	14
GHANA	15000	4096	19,16	372	3
GUINEA	4000	128	7,71	677	10
GUINEA-BISSAU	250	640	1,13	245	4
KENYA	35000	28000	29,01	347	2
LESOTHO	750	784	2,06	547	2
LIBERIA	250	128	2,67	1000	1
LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA	4000	2048	5,98	6579	1
MADAGASCAR	10000	2750	16,36	224	1
MALAWI	3500	2300	10,75	242	2
MALI	6000	4096	10,69	230	1
MAURITANIA	960	384	2,53	455	1
MAURITIUS	35000	4096	1,15	3661	1
MOROCCO	80000	200000	27,87	1218	1
MOZAMBIQUE	6000	2048	18,88	86	11
NAMIBIA	15000	6144	1,66	2051	100
NIGER	2000	384	10,08	161	1
NIGERIA	60000	15000	113,5	551	2
REUNION	47000	576	0,68	9270	4
RWANDA	2700	1300	6,6	317	1
SAO TOME & PRINCIPE	378	64	0,14	358	1
SENEGAL	15000	48000	10	518	4
SEYCHELLES	3000	4098	0,08	6995	3
SIERRA LEONE	1000	512	4,57	209	1
SOMALIA	250	768	10,63	169	2
SOUTH AFRICA	750000	342000	44,31	2979	2
SUDAN	9000	10000	28,29	364	7
SWAZILAND	5000	256	0,95	1388	1
TANZANIA	30000	12000	32,1	244	4
TOGO	1700	1536	4,4	324	9
TUNISIA	70000	75000	9,34	2144	1
UGANDA	10000	9250	20,55	317	5
ZAMBIA	7000	5120	8,78	463	1
ZIMBABWE	25000	11000	12,68	712	4

 

Perhaps an even greater problem is that the brain drain and generally low levels of education and literacy amongst the population has created a scarcity of skills and expertise (at all levels, from policy making down to end-user). Rural areas in particular suffer with even more limited human resources. Along with the very low pay scales in the African civil service, this is a chronic problem for governments and NGOs who are continually losing their brightest and most experienced to the private sector. This situation is not unique to Africa or other developing countries, but is also being faced by the developed world where infrastructure demands have outpaced the supply of experienced staff. However, this is simply exacerbating the situation in Africa, because experienced technicians, even from the local private sector, are able to find much higher paying jobs in Europe and North America.

 

Finally, the general business climate for increased investment in Africa, acutely needed for the ICT sector, has suffered from the well-known problems of small markets divided by arbitrary borders, non-transparent and time-consuming procedures, limited opportunities (due largely to the historic pattern of monopolies and high levels of state control), scarce local capital, currency instability, exchange controls and inflation.

 

However, these rather discouraging observations do not give the full picture.

 

The ICT landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years and within the continent there are many pockets of significant developments. 

 

·         One of the early and still most important impacts has been in the use of email to reduce the cost, and  to increase the speed and duration of international communications. This has allowed many people and organisations to improve management, obtain resources and generally achieve much better communications with their family, friends, colleagues and partners around the world or in neighbouring countries.

 

·         Although the relatively low level of ICT penetration amongst the public in Africa has so far limited the use of ICTs for governance purposes, many administrations are beginning to streamline their operations and improve internal efficiencies by adopting ICTs.  For example the government of Lesotho recently declared that all announcements for cabinet and committee meetings would be made only by email. Administrations such as those in South Africa, Algeria and Tunisia now provide immediate global access to tenders via the web. Health and education departments in many countries are beginning to electronically transmit operational MIS statistics such as disease occurrences and pupil registrations. In South Africa, the results of blood tests are being transmitted to remote clinics that are off the telecom grid via mobile telephone text messages. As greater numbers of public officials are now gaining low-cost access to the web, the vast information resources available via Internet are becoming increasingly important tools in ensuring informed decision-making.

 

·         Lack of timely information is well known to be the largest constraint on small-scale agricultural production and natural resource exploitation - a sector that provides livelihood for 70-80 percent of Africa's population. However, thus far the potential for ICTs to impact this sector has not yet received much attention. Local farmers or miners often cannot obtain up-to-date market information, so travelling traders can negotiate low prices. With improved information systems they would be able to obtain much better market-related prices. Also, farmer and fishing organisations are able to band together to sell their produce directly to distributors, and negotiate for better prices on inputs.

 

·         The scalability of ICTs lends themselves to adoption by small and medium size enterprises, which can provide much needed local communication services. Furthermore, the 'death of distance' provided by the Internet has meant that there are even greater opportunities to be found in exploiting the larger information and communication-based economies of the developed countries.   For example:

 

-  A local Internet service provider in Morocco has a contract to digitize the National Library of France's paper

archives. They are scanned in France, sent over by satellite link where they are edited by operators in Rabat.

-  In Togo and Mauritius, call centres now provide telephone support services for international companies with

customers in Europe and North America. Callers do not realize they're calling Mauritius or Togo, they pick up the phone, dial a local number and are routed through to one of these countries where the operators there provide the support that they require.

-  In Cape Verde, 'virtual security guards' have found jobs using the Internet to monitor webcams in office

    parks on the East Coast of the US. They notify local rapid response teams there if they see anything amiss.

-  Many African craft makers are selling their wares on the WWW, supported by NGOs such as PeopleLink.

 

While these developments are encouraging, unfortunately there are rather too few of these examples, largely because of the low level of penetration of the infrastructure and supporting environment necessary to effectively use ICTs in Africa.

 

Broadcasting

Radio is still by far the most dominant mass medium in Afric