Advantage Africa?
By Thrishni Subramoney in Cairo

Competition between market players and independent communications regulation
are the keys to Africa's IT castle. That was the message for delegates at
the opening forum session of ITU Telecom Africa 2004.

However, just as crucial a point for the keynote speakers – ITU Secretary
General Yoshio Utsumi, Ugandan Minister of Works, Housing and
Communications, John Nasasira and Tunisia's Transport and Technology
Minister, Moutasser Ouaili – seemed to be the question of just how
advantaged Africa really is.

Armed with a statistics-laden slide presentation, Utsumi pushed the positive
line about African ICT growth, pointing to the phenomenal growth of mobile
networks in region (the cellphone market in Africa has grown by 1000 percent
in the last five years according to the latest ITU statistics).

"The ICT sector in Africa is healthier than ever before," he stressed, "It
is the fastest growing market for the Internet and mobile phones."

Utsumi says the "building blocks" for Africa's growth has been the increase
in competition between telecommunication service providers and the
mushrooming of independent regulators in the region. ITU reports say that
since 1993, the number of countries that have a competitive
telecommunications market has almost tripled, from 16 to 41.

Nasasira - who took the stage after Utsumi - was not as glowing in his
analysis. He acknowledged the growth in the sector, but he pointed out that
it was far too early to be jubilant.

"I agree with the Secretary-General, that much has been done in Africa, but
let's not forget the challenges and constraints we still face. More than 50
percent of Africans have never made a phone call," he said.

Nasasira says there has to be a number of changes on the continent before Africa can make the best of its apparent "advantage". The changes included social and cultural reforms to ensure that all Africans regardless of race, gender or ethnicity have ICT skills.

He stressed that the biggest problem in Africa was a lack of affordable resources. "Over 50 percent of people on the continent earn less than one dollar a day and 40 percent are unemployed," he said.

Nevertheless, Nasasira still believes in the importance of the burgeoning mobile networks on the continent. He says that when he took up office as a minister in Uganda in 1999, he often faced criticism about the fact that there were more mobile connections than fixed line connections in the country.

"I was told this like I should feel guilty," he laughed, "But mobile phones
are appropriate for the way we live in scattered villages and fixed lines
are far more costly in terms of infrastructure."

Tunisia's Transport and Technology Minister, Moutasser Ouaili devoted his
keynote address to the upcoming WSIS conference in Tunisia. Speaking in
Arabic, (he had to start a few minutes late due to a shortage of translation
headphones for the audience) he expressed the hope that the Tunisian phase
of WSIS would be as well-supported as the Geneva one.

"We need to concert our efforts to integrate the two phases and we need
unity in our endeavors," he said.