Workshop on Information Technology in Africa 

Conference Proceedings 

2-3 October 2001 

The views expressed in this conference summary are those of 

individuals and do not represent official US Government 

positions or views. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) 

routinely sponsors such unclassified conferences with outside 

experts to gain knowledge and insight to sharpen the level 

of debate on critical issues. 

This conference was sponsored by the National Intelligence Council 

with the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the 

Meridian International Center. 

CR 2002-01 

May 2002 

Workshop on Information Technology in Africa 

Conference Report 

Introduction 

In October 2001, the National Intelligence Council, in conjunction with the State Department’s 

Bureau of Intelligence and Research, sponsored a conference that examined Africa’s 

participation in the Information Revolution and explored opportunities for African nations to 

benefit from Information Technology (IT). The purpose of this conference was to explore the 

African IT landscape from an academic, commercial, and government standpoint. It brought 

together approximately 60 government and outside experts from Africa, the United States, and 

the United Kingdom in an effort to develop a baseline against which future African IT 

developments and needs can be measured. 

This interactive day-and-a-half workshop focused on the economic, social, and political 

impact—positive and negative—that IT is having within Sub-Saharan Africa. The conference 

centered around five panel discussions with presentations from technical and regional experts. 

In addition, there were regional breakout sessions—East, West, Central and Southern—which 

sparked lively debate and sought to create a snapshot of the IT infrastructure in 

Africahighlighting successes, identifying pitfalls, and promoting cooperation. 

This conference report contains the introductory presentations and a summary of the subsequent 

non-attributed discussions that followed. Additionally, a summation of the overall discussion, 

observations, and recommendations from each regional breakout group has been included. The 

conference encompassed diverse and dynamic opinions; the views expressed in this summary 

represent the views of individual participants and do not reflect an overall conference consensus, 

or an official US Government position. 

Executive Summary 

The last 20 years have been characterized by rapid improvements in information technology and 

have come to be regarded as the “Information Revolution.” The Information Revolution is 

changing the speed at which information is communicated, the facility with which calculations 

can be conducted in real time, and the costs and speed of observation of physical phenomena. 

Applications of IT in transportation mean that people and goods can be moved more efficiently; 

applications to the production process mean that goods and services can be produced more 

efficiently. 

In the absence of a well-developed telecommunications infrastructure, many African nations 

want to leapfrog into modern information technology, participate in the Information Revolution, 

and close the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” There are now very few places in 

Africa where one is not within commuting distance of an Internet access point. In many 

countries there is a powerful success story. Five years ago, only a handful of countries had 

global systems for mobile communications cellular operators and local Internet access; now 

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more than 600 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are operating, including ISPs in all African 

countries. Now, there are almost one hundred mobile providers—and more mobile than fixedline subscribers in Africa. Some countries are now moving toward full competition in fixed 

telecom networks. By some accounts, three to four million PCs have been installed. 

Still, Africa’s demand for information and communications remains largely unmet. Less than 

two percent of world investment in telecommunications in the 1990s was in Africa. Moreover, 

the IR is sweeping even faster throughout the rest of the world. Although the Internet is not the 

only technology of the Information Revolution, it is a clear indicator of trends and 

developments. In 2000, Africa had only 0.22 percent of the world’s Internet websites, lower 

than three years before. 

South Africa has roughly half of the continent’s IT infrastructure. North Africa and Nigeria each 

have about one-sixth, and all the rest of Africa accounts for only one-sixth of the infrastructure. 

As one might expect, richer countries are generally more wired. However, the patterns of IT 

diffusion in Africa are very complex; mobile phone, fixed line telephone, the Internet, telephone 

revenues, radio and television all show regional differences. Mass media communications—

radio and TV—are far more important in Africa than point-to-point communications. For every 

telephone in Africa, there are 2,500 TVs and 14,000 radios. In 1990, Africa held 12 percent of 

world population and two percent of the world’s telephones, but 10 years later with a higher 

portion of world population, Africa had only 0.8 percent of the telephones. 

There are still many countries in Africa with policies that impede the full development of IT. 

The key to IT success in Africa is to find a way to confront relevant policy issues and discover 

what can be done to remedy them. Four factors have been considered as drivers and 

impediments to changes: Culture, Competence, Capital, and Control. How do these factors 

influence who uses IT, and for what purposes, in the economic, social and political systems in 

these countries? Most importantly, what will be the economic, social, and political implications 

of the different patterns of use of IT that will be expected to emerge in these regions? 

Economic Impact 

Although clearly underfunded on an 

international scale, the IT infrastructure 

in Sub-Saharan Africa for business is 

improving. Telecommunication services 

are increasingly available, including both 

basic services and such advanced 

services as video conferencing and live 

data streaming. Telecommunication 

equipment supply is getting better, 

especially mobile and fixed wireless, as 

is computer equipment supply for both 

consumers and businesses. Corporate 

Internet access is available; business 

centers and hosting services are serving 

business customers. 

2 
• Finance. IT is improving banking and other financial services in countries such as Morocco 

and Zimbabwe. 

• Business Development. Opportunities are being created for African enterprises to market 

teleservices for developed nations. A Moroccan ISP, for example, is currently digitizing 

France's national archives. 

• Agro-Business. An example of a successful initiative involved the dissemination of cocoa 

and coffee prices to farmers in Côte d’Ivoire. The agricultural extension agency based in 

Abidjan e-mails world coffee and cocoa market prices to its extension agents. 

• Employment. Information and communication technologies have created new types of jobs, 

such as those in cyber-cafés, telecenters, and business centers. 

Social Impact 

The arrival of the mobile phone has been characterized as a “communication miracle” in remote 

areas of certain countries, specifically in Côte d’Ivoire. It has also widened telephone access to 

all social classes; in South Africa, for example, community telephone kiosks in facilities made 

from standard cargo containers provide wireless telephone service using cellular antennas and 

cellular pay-telephones. 

In non-urban and remote regions, established communal social structures facilitate shared 

telecommunications and Internet facilities—an African version of the cyber-café—rather than 

diffuse, individual-owned connections. These facilities can be mobile and connected via satellite 

to leapfrog the necessity of landlines and distributed power requirements. 

• Education. There is considerable interest in distance education and training in Africa. The 

African Virtual University already has fee-paying students on 24 university campuses in 

Africa who are linked to teachers and libraries worldwide via Internet. 

• Health Services. The Internet provides health researchers and professionals access to up-todate research and reference material. It has afforded health workers in cities such as 

Abidjan, Bouake, and Daloa rapid information exchange, conferencing, distance learning, 

and access to urgent advice or diagnosis assistance. The Internet allows the dissemination of 

best practices in fighting against HIV/AIDS. X-rays are being e-mailed in Mozambique, 

making expert medical interpretation available to patients without travel to a specialist. 

• Empowerment of Women. IT has opened up many opportunities for women. For example, 

one of the members of an Ivorian women-in-agriculture network found a call for proposals 

on the Internet. She developed a proposal for an agriculture project to benefit a group of 

women farmers in the north of the Côte d’Ivoire, and submitted it via the Internet. 

Political Impact 

In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, the impact of new information and communication technology on 

the media was described as “phenomenal." Local radio can be heard on the Internet; some

newspapers are on line and can be read from all over the world, broadening participation in the 

3 
political process. Ivorians of the Diaspora can follow events in the country through Internet 

versions of local newspapers, and they can contribute to political debate via the Internet. 

This international availability of information has brought more transparency in the election 

process. In Côte d’Ivoire’s last election, the parties created websites for the campaign and 

provided cellphones to their representatives. 

Regional IT Overview

The workshop divided into four breakout sessions, each dealing with one region of Sub-Saharan 

Africa. The participants were asked to discuss the role of IT in conflict, political change, and 

economic development within each region. They also were asked to consider the interaction 

between nationalism and ethnic politics, the role of language, and opportunities where IT can 

benefit each region. 

These breakout sessions were to be a continuation of earlier discussions, focusing on specific 

regions. The challenge was then to address how IT will influence the economic, social, and 

political paths of African nations. 

Southern Africa. South Africa’s well-developed infrastructure, political stability, and good 

education system have facilitated the diffusion of IT. The value attached to free press and free 

expression spills over to facilitate greater acceptance for IT diffusion, as does the South African 

tradition of an independent judiciary. 

Telephone Statistics for Côte d’Ivoire 

Year 

Fixed 

Phone 

Lines 

Mobile 

Phones 

Population Ratio of

Adoption 

1997 142,322 36,005 15,292,000 1.17 % 

1998 171,001 91,212 15,854,000 1.65 % 

1999 219,283 257,134 16,377,182 2.91 %

2000 240,000 322,500 16,377,182 3.32 %

The legacies of apartheid, however, 

include an inequitable limitation of

considerable intellectual property to the 

former elite. Some of South Africa’s 

early experiences in IT, good or bad, are 

likely to be emulated in other African 

nations; but other nations may recognize 

failures in South Africa’s approach. 

A few potentially negative impacts were discussed. With increased IT use, financial assets may 

be more quickly expatriated; there are elements of both investor risk and safety from ITfacilitated movement of assets. 

Central Africa. Chronic conflict may explain in part why the Central African Economic 

Community lags substantially in the number of radios, televisions, telecom facilities, and cellular 

telephones, per capita. Only a thin veneer of elites IT in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

(DROC); illiteracy is as high as 70 percent, which will limit the extent of Internet use. The 

DROC private sector may be willing to invest in connectivity, but foreign investors are likely to 

be deterred by the risky circumstances. 

Increased use of PCs and other ITs in government is a possible part of an effort to combat 

corruption and to increase transparency. Increased use of short wave, FM and possibly digital 

radio could facilitate communication and civic education. The Internet can connect civil society 

4 
and public sector institutions. However, the media also can be used for propaganda and to 

encourage genocide (as occurred in Rwanda in 1994) when extremists gain control of the radio. 

IT could provide a means for distance learning; given the loss of teachers to AIDS, IT could be 

critical to filling gaps. Similarly, wireless communication technologies will likely be used for 

distance medical diagnosis and treatment, as they presently are being used in South Africa. 

East Africa. The region is building on Diaspora communities to create very positive advances in 

IT development. The Eritrean Diaspora, for example, has established many direct links with 

community-based organizations and community-based umbrella organizations working in 

regions of Eritrea that are often beyond the reach of the conventional projects and practices of 

development agents. Through planning and communication software developed in the United 

States, Eritreans have built a sophisticated planning and support delivery network, making it 

available to the most remote regions. 

In addition, the Diaspora has set up a website that provides otherwise inaccessible news and 

information that is often critical of the government. The Somali Telecom Group is an example 

of the leapfrog technologies that are allowing well-trained Africans to return to Somalia and 

apply their state-of-the-art skills in their regions. The case of Uganda is a good demonstration of 

the benefits of competition. The Government of Uganda has forced previously monopolistic 

communications companies to make the price competitive. 

West Africa. The Internet is driving competition within the region. Nigeria is by far the largest 

country and the largest economy in West Africa. However, Senegal and Ghana, both 

democratic, market-oriented countries, are leaders in the development of IT in the region. On a 

positive note, there is an educational base and human capital conducive to IT-based 

development. 

Nigeria, for example, has a very low teledensity. The country did open up competition for 

mobile wireless, and awarded four licenses ($265 million per license); two companies have 

begun operating. The growth rate looks promising. The Internet has a fairly strong base in 

Nigeria, although there is a lack of good international connections. There is a fairly competitive 

ISP market. However, eighty percent of the people live outside the cities; most telephone lines 

are in Lagos and those are often non-functional. In the rural areas, travel of 50 km to a pay 

phone is average. Developing nodes of communication to enable radio to be used to reach the 

rural population would be useful. 

Implications for Policymakers 

Africa’s use of IT is growing, but at a slower rate than other parts of the world. The biggest 

change in Africa is the coming to influence and power of a new, globally oriented generation. IT 

is the ideal vector to support and empower these future leaders. 

The privatization of telecom and a competitive market atmosphere will be key to achieving 

connectivity and low-cost service. The educational system, from primary schools on up, should 

strengthen efforts from computer literacy training to the conduct of research and experimental 

5 
development. “Centers of Excellence” for manpower development are needed everywhere; 

development of human resources should be included in all plans for IT development. 

Donors seem to have focused on Southern Africa, but clear opportunities exist in advanced 

countries in North Africa. Local applications, such as those in government, deserve more 

support. Local content and content in local languages should be a priority. Agriculture and 

natural resource management are critically important but do not receive much support from

donors. 

Policies should clearly distinguish between countries in which state-owned enterprises are in the 

IT business, versus those in which government restricts itself to policy and regulation. The 

former should be encouraged to liberalize; assistance should be provided to the latter in building 

relevant capacity. Emphasis should be directed to equity issues, including equal access for 

women, and access for rural and semi-urban areas. 

6 
Contents 

Page 

Introduction 1 

Executive Summary 1 

Opening Remarks 8 

 Ellen Laipson 8 

 Lane Smith 8 

Panel I: Global Course of the Information Revolution— 

 Overview and Introduction of RAND Model 

9 

 RAND Model—Templates to Apply to Africa 9 

 Applying the RAND Model to Africa: Questions to Consider 11 

Panel II: Technology—Where is Africa? 13 

 African Information Revolution: A Balance Sheet 13 

 On the Ground: A Consultancy Perspective 14 

 Project Africa 16 

 Discussion Highlights 17 

Panel III: Economic, Social and Political Impact of Information 

 Technology

19 

 African Internet: A Status Report 19 

 Côte d'Ivoire and the New Information Age 23 

 The South African Experience: A Regulator's Viewpoint 26 

 Discussion Highlights 28 

Panel IV: Regional Breakout Sessions and Group Presentations 29 

 Southern Africa: Focus on South Africa 29 

 Central Africa: Focus on Democratic Republic of Congo 34 

 East Africa: Focus on Uganda 38 

 West Africa: Focus on Nigeria 42 

 Discussion Highlights 49 

Panel V: Implications for Policymakers 51 

 Key Issues for African Policymakers 51 

 Implications for US Foreign Policy 53 

7 
Opening Remarks 

Ellen Laipson

Former Vice Chairman, National Intelligence Council 

This workshop is one of a series dealing with the impact of the Information Revolution and other 

technological advances on US international policy. Assumptions are often made about Africa, 

but this workshop provides an opportunity to challenge conventional thinking and to raise 

understanding of ground truth. Africa may not be a story of horizontal diffusion of information 

technology (IT), but rather a region with pockets of new technology. What are the consequences 

of this pattern? How do culture, capacity, control, and capital affect the dissemination and 

utilization of new information technologies in Africa? 

Work done on global trends has shown the interconnectedness of many issues; consequently this 

workshop should use a wide lens to encompass all the relevant factors. The information 

technology story should be linked to a broader African story. Such an approach will help the 

National Intelligence Council (NIC) to make use of the insights provided in this workshop. 

Since this meeting has been held less than one month after the events of 11 September, 

participants are urged to think in terms of those events and of returning to normalcy. What 

impacts will the September attacks have on the topics to be treated in this workshop? 

Lane Smith 

Coordinator, Leland Initiative, US Agency for International Development 

In some ways this workshop is reminiscent of the discussions conducted at the opening of the 

Leland Initiative more than five years ago. Surely the events of 11 September will push the US 

Government to do even a better job in getting information technology to Africa. The conference 

also provides an opportunity for people who know each other only via telephone and the Internet 

to meet face-to-face. 

The Leland Initiative has focused on IT policy and building an IT user base in Africa since 1995. 

It has had major achievements in enhancing Internet connectivity. There are now very few 

places in Africa where one is not within commuting distance of an Internet access point. In 

many countries and places there are powerful success stories, but there are still several places 

with policy problems, including Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa. The private sector responded 

very well to the Leland Initiative. It would be helpful in this workshop to look at the progress 

made under this initiative and to identify ways to reduce the remaining bottlenecks. 

Because African leaders have been courageous, they have demonstrated that good policies really 

work. Thus Nigeria has just auctioned licenses for wireless telephone operators and raised $1 

billion for its treasury. Starting from less than 400,000 working lines, by January Nigeria should 

have nearly two million working lines. If policy barriers are in place, the private sector gets 

nowhere. In Ethiopia, for example, there is nothing wrong with the private sector. But the 

regime has said it is uncomfortable with a strong private sector delivery of these kinds of 

services. So the policies are critical—they work for or against you. 

8 
Panel I: Global Course of the 

Information Revolution—

Overview and Introduction of 

RAND Model 

Dr. Robert Anderson

Head, Information Sciences Group, RAND 

Based on a model developed by RAND, this 

initial session provided the necessary 

framework to assess how IT will impact 

Africa and how African nations will utilize IT 

for their own benefit. 

RAND Model—Templates to Apply 

to Africa 

RAND is conducting a multi-year effort, 

sponsored by the National Intelligence 

Council, to chart the likely future course and 

implications of the information revolution 

throughout the world over the next 10 to 20 

years. As a major part of this effort, RAND is 

holding a series of international conferences 

on various aspects of the information 

revolution. Conferences completed to date 

include: 

• Societal Trends Driven by the Information 

Revolution 

(Washington, DC—November 1999) 

• Technology Drivers of the Information 

Revolution 

(Pittsburgh, PA—May 2000) 

• The Information Revolution in Latin 

America 

(Washington, DC—November 2000) 

• The Future of the Information Revolution 

in Europe 

(Limelette, Belgium—April 2001) 

In characterizing the IT activity of a nation, it 

is useful to distinguish among: 

• The underlying technology (e.g., 

integrated circuit, UNIX operating 

system, TCP/IP protocol, and fiber-optic 

cable). 

• Hardware and software artifacts

developed from that technology (e.g., 

hardware items such as PCs, laptops, cell 

phones, Palm Pilots or software items

such as spreadsheets, other office 

automation tools, including Mosaic and 

Netscape browsers). 

• Services performed and delivered using 

these artifacts (e.g., routine software 

support services, information services 

available over the web, transactional 

services such as on-line banking and online shopping, and a wide variety of other 

financial and e-commerce services). 

A nation can be successful in the development 

of IT artifacts without developing the 

underlying technology. Similarly, a nation 

can be successful in the performance of IT 

services without developing either technology 

or artifacts. 

Nations exhibit different patterns of mastery 

over technology, artifacts, and services. The 

United States is strong in all three aspects. 

Finland and Sweden both manufacture 

artifacts (such as cellphones and wireless 

gateways) and have strong IT service 

industries. India is producing software and 

selling IT-intensive services (such as backoffice operations services) internationally but 

does not have a strong IT hardware 

manufacturing capability. For developing 

nations, a likely progression is from

developing services, to developing artifacts, 

and ultimately developing technology. 

9 
What may the next 10 to 20 years hold? In 

technology, we expect exponential growth in 

computing power for at least another 10 to 15 

years, a convergence in communications 

technologies and a major increase in 

bandwidth. In artifacts, we may expect to see 

such developments as: 

• Diverse, powerful, inexpensive sensors 

capable of (limited-distance) wireless 

communication. 

• Ubiquitous computing, with convergence 

of wireless telephones, personal digital 

assistants (PDAs), radio, voice and e-mail 

messaging, smart home appliances, etc.

We can expect to see the elaboration of many 

new and improved IT services, such as 

limited machine translation of human 

languages, robust global information utilities 

serving a wide variety of needs, e-commerce 

with billions of customers and millions of

businesses, and telemedicine.

The Four Cs 

In the previous meetings, participants have 

focused on four groups of factors that act as 

drivers of or impediments to change: 

Culture, Competence, Capital, and Control. 

These have been referred to as “the 4 Cs.” 

These factors influence a nation’s access to 

and adoption of information and 

communication technologies (ICT). They can 

enhance or impede a nation’s course through 

the information revolution.

Culture includes many factors: What 

language or languages are spoken in the 

country? Is the country linguistically 

homogeneous and is the principal language 

globally prominent? If so, will many 

software packages be translated into that 

language? Since much of the IT and webbased information is produced in English, are 

many of the country’s citizens bilingual? And 

if so, is that second language English?

Other cultural issues are potentially 

influential, for example, is the nation or 

region strongly nationalistic, thereby tending 

to resist “foreign” influences such as provided 

by information and communication 

originating elsewhere? Is the culture of the 

country or region highly stratified, so that ICT 

penetration and usage within one stratum is 

not likely to strongly affect others? Does the 

country have a stable, viable legal framework, 

within which such concepts as intellectual 

property rights, privacy, and patents are 

legally protected? Are the principal players 

organized hierarchically, or does the culture 

foster small, networked, cooperative 

arrangements among firms? Can business 

relationships be developed easily outside of 

tribes, families, and other strong social 

institutions—based on confidence 

relationships? 

Competence deals primarily with the level of

knowledge and skills of the people in the 

country. Is education in computer and 

communication-related technologies widely 

available and does it enable workers to 

provide goods and services needed within the 

society itself, without needing to rely on 

outsiders for production, maintenance, and 

support services? Are citizens of the country 

mere consumers of the technology and its 

artifacts and services, or do they produce 

those goods and services as well?

Capital involves considering whether there 

are sources within the country or region itself 

that provide needed capital for IT businesses, 

or is it viewed as a good investment by 

external parties, so that investment capital can 

flow into the area? Is there an infrastructure 

that ensures delivery of services, such as 

electric power and telecommunications, at a 

reasonable cost to the consumer?

10 
Control, the last of the four C’s, has proven to 

be an especially useful focus for past 

conference discussions. Under this heading 

one may discuss both “Agency of Control” 

and “Form of Control.” Is societal control 

lodged primarily in a government, the 

military, religious organizations, or the 

private sector, and is the control restrictive 

and constraining, or promotional and guiding?

Some “Country Models” of the 

Information Revolution 

It has been useful to classify countries in 

terms of their place in the Information 

Revolution (IR). Thus, nations have been 

classified as: 

• IR Vanguard Nations—those in the 

forefront of one or more aspects of the 

information revolution, creating the new 

developments and showing the way to 

those that follow (e.g., United States, 

Canada, Finland, and Sweden). 

• IR Strivers—those well along in many 

aspects of the information revolution, but 

in most cases following in the tracks of

the IR Vanguard nations (Australia, 

France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, 

Singapore, Taiwan, and the United 

Kingdom). 

• IR Slow Movers—those lagging behind in 

their information revolution 

developments, for a variety of reasons 

(e.g., Japan). 

• IR Late Starters—many nations of 

Central and Eastern Europe, and many 

Latin American nations. 

• IR Veneer Societies—those in which a 

small fraction of the society is 

participating in the information revolution 

and well into the information age, with the 

vast bulk of the population still in the 

industrial or even the agricultural age 

(e.g., India). 

• IR Left-Behinds—those being left behind 

by the information revolution, for a 

variety of reasons (e.g., Afghanistan, 

Burma, North Korea). 

In the context of this conference, it will be 

useful to determine how to characterize 

various African nations based on their 

attributes and some of the factors affecting 

their status. 

Applying the RAND Model to 

Africa: Questions to Consider 

In utilizing this framework, it is important to 

consider which factors are easily manipulated 

and which factors can be changed to promote 

quick IT growth. Although much can be 

explained by poverty, the per capita GDP is 

not likely to change quickly. 

The generic RAND model is intended for 

global application. The African example is a 

very useful reminder that the entire world is 

not Singapore. There is a tendency to look at 

vertical charts and say the world is being 

transformed. However, 99.5 percent of 

Africans are not connected to the Internet. 

Thereby reminding us, that although the 

world is being transformed by information 

technology, the impact of such technology 

differs widely among regions and countries. 

One could arguably say that IT is more 

important for Africa than it is for countries on 

other continents. Specifically, Africa’s many 

landlocked countries need portals to attract 

capital investment, increase exports, provide 

education, and promote democracy. All of 

these factors should be considered when 

employing the RAND model. 

11 
Given the timing of this workshop, one key 

issue will be the impact of the events of 

11 September on decisionmakers in the 

private sector. Will there be a drop in capital 

flows to developing nations and will the drop 

for Africa be proportionately greater? What 

will the impact of 11 September be on foreign 

assistance and more specifically on donor 

assistance for IT? 

The events of 11 September should focus 

attention on the importance of the 

development of democracy. If poor countries 

are not democratic enough, the United States 

will feel the repercussions. Thus it becomes 

important to consider the effects of IT on 

democratization. 

GDP per capita is strongly predictive of 

Internet penetration (and telecom

penetration), but the general poverty of 

African nations does not tell the entire story. 

Per capita GDP is about $400 to $450 in 

Zimbabwe, Senegal, Lesotho, and Nigeria; 

nevertheless, these countries have 

significantly different levels of connectivity. 

The differences are extremely important for 

policy purposes; to understand them, one 

must look at institutions and key leaders, such 

as the Markle Foundation, to promote 

understanding and improvement of 

e-readiness. Other aspects of culture, such as 

the existence and tolerance for corruption and 

the willingness of elites to cooperate among 

themselves, seems especially important, as 

does the level of competence within the 

country. 

12 
Panel II: Technology—Where 

is Africa? 

The purpose of this panel was to look at the 

diffusion patterns of technologies in SubSaharan Africa and determine what types of 

technology are being employed on the 

continent. More importantly, the development 

of IT infrastructure in Africa and Africa’s IT 

relationship with the rest of the world were 

discussed. Many of the points made in this 

session were thought-provoking, or outside 

the realm of conventional thinking, initiating 

a dynamic discussion platform for the 

conference. 

African Information Revolution: 

A Balance Sheet 

Essentially, there are good things going on in 

IT in Africa. Every country is now connected 

to the Internet; three to four million PCs have 

been installed. However, South Africa has 

roughly half of that IT infrastructure and 

North Africa and Nigeria each have about 

one-sixth of the IT infrastructure; the rest of

Africa accounts for only one-sixth of the 

infrastructure. Thus, the majority of SubSaharan African countries are very much 

behind the IR curve. 

The patterns of IT diffusion in Africa are very 

complex; mobile phone, fixed line telephone, 

the Internet, telephone revenues, radio and 

television all show different regional patterns. 

As expected, there is a tendency for rich 

countries to be more wired than poor 

countries, but there are significant variations 

in connectivity among countries at 

comparable economic levels. 

On a positive note, telephones and Internet 

service are expanding very rapidly, and 

waiting times for telephone service have gone 

down. However, it is important to understand 

that mass media communications are far more 

important than point-to-point. For every 

telephone in Africa, there are 2,500 TVs, and 

14,000 radios. Radio and TV are the media of 

choice to reach great numbers of people; the 

Internet is being used to feed radio and 

television broadcasters. 

On the downside, Africa is falling further 

behind the rest of the world in IT. This year it 

had only 0.22 percent of the world’s websites, 

lower than three years before. Africa is 

moving fast in acquiring information and 

communication technology infrastructure, but 

Latin America and Asia are moving ahead 

faster. In 1990, Africa had 12 percent of the 

world’s population, but only two percent of 

the world’s telephones. Ten years later, 

Africa had only 0.8 percent of the telephones. 

The ITU data on which this statement is based 

pertains to fixed lines, and the picture 

probably is different if wireless telephony is 

included. Still, less than two percent of world 

investment in telecommunications in the 

1990s was in Africa. 

Over the 1990s, positive evolution in African 

IT infrastructure occurred, combining public 

and private initiatives, balancing centralized 

and decentralized administrative controls, and 

involving both domestic and foreign 

investment. There is a strong sense of 

gathering momentum and potential for growth 

caused by the positive effects of knowledge 

gleaned from increased connectivity. Why 

did that momentum develop? 

The IT revolution is not simply a 

technological revolution; if that were the case, 

everyone would participate equally. Rather, 

the revolution is one of knowledge and 

politics. 

13 
On the Ground: A Consultancy 

Perspective 

Over the last few years there has been a 

marked change in the characteristics of 

funding and infrastructure development in the 

developing world. Standalone project-based 

work has been replaced by projects that fit 

within a “program of activity.” For example, 

an increasing number of projects fit within a 

framework of “public service capacity 

building.” This approach prioritizes tasks for 

the government and sets out funding 

timetables so that governments and aid 

organizations work hand-in-hand to achieve 

goals over much longer periods. 

Programs might resemble the following 

models. The civil service is downsized and 

the government is tasked with creating a more 

efficient work force. Information systems are 

used to create financial management 

information systems, which allow greater 

transparency and audit ability. Payroll and 

personnel systems are created to move away 

from a manual-based system, and data is 

cleaned. Business process re-engineering is 

used to create procedures across government 

that will lead to inevitable, but positive 

change. 

How does one plan international projects? 

Supply the most capable and appropriate 

consultants with multiple skills and sector 

experience. Academic qualifications do 

underpin capability, but extensive “hands on” 

experience is essential. One must use proven 

techniques for fair procurement, structured 

development, and project management. Plan 

to the highest level of detail, but recognize 

that cultural restraints can and do affect 

performance. Acknowledge extended 

development and management project 

lifecycles. Be aware of and recognize 

corruption, and use technology to aid its 

eradication through the creation of tighter 

security methods and tighter data input 

controls. 

The impact of HIV/AIDS must not be 

underestimated when planning projects. HIV 

is affecting the educated “middle class,” 

leading to not inconsiderable project impact. 

Arguably, every family in Africa is affected, 

either directly or indirectly. 

The “Rules of Engagement” 

Different countries have different power bases 

and different agendas, and working in Africa 

is a continuous learning experience. To refer 

to one’s experiences in another African 

country, and to use that model unthinkingly, 

is as dangerous as it is resented. The level of 

sophistication within African civil services is 

high. Never underestimate them. There is a 

plethora of internationally trained staff, with 

qualifications from prestigious universities 

and colleges. 

Always remember that in line with African 

politics the underlying penalties for failure are 

substantial. A civil servant who has worked 

his way to the top is usually a politically 

aware, intelligent, and highly capable 

individual, with strong connections to other 

powerful individuals. 

African nations are proud and increasingly 

sophisticated. Most of their educational, 

social, and legal infrastructures have 

historical roots. Most senior civil servants 

have First World education and look for First 

World solutions, for example utilizing Oracle 

v11 instead of Oracle v10; Pentium IV 

technology instead of 486. There is an 

increasing reluctance by certain African 

governments for foreign nationals (UK, other 

European, and US principally) to provide 

advice and an increasing resistance to “tied” 

funding. 

14 
Africans often do not get first-rate service 

from international consultants. Consultants 

build careers in First World markets, and as a 

consequence, many of the best do not wish to 

go to Africa. Neither are their fees affordable 

in Africa, since fee rates are substantially 

higher in First World countries. Logically it 

follows that there is an element of 

consultancy support, just as in the First 

World, which is not of a high standard. The 

most significant difference is that in First 

World countries those consultants are unlikely 

to be able to make a significant impact on a 

nation. 

Markets for consulting services in developing 

nations are funded by organizations (DFID1

, 

USAID, UN, World Bank) that must justify 

expenditures versus results. One of the 

principal objectives is continued capacity 

development in the target country. Supplying 

consultancies provide documentation and 

planning advice, and “local companies” carry 

out implementation services. 

Infrastructures in the Developing World

Telecommunications are poor and frequently 

out of service. The use of copper wiring is 

prolific, especially in countries engaged in 

copper extraction. Roaming facilities for 

mobile First World technologies are limited 

due to current credit facilities. Roads are 

generally poor and plumbing, waste drainage, 

and electricity supplies are intermittent and 

cannot be relied upon. Money to develop 

these facilities is not forthcoming due to lack 

of credit and poorly performing economies. 

The developed world remains developed only 

through a continuous cycle of development 

and improvement. Funding only provides a 

piecemeal approach. The piecemeal approach 

causes projects to fail to deliver completely, 

leading eventually to continuous revisiting of 

previously funded sectors. There is little 

identifiable coordination among donors. One 

of the biggest problems is drawing together 

multinational resources to build systems more 

quickly, so that the coordinated solution 

provides the springboard for the nation to 

begin building systems itself. This lack of 

coordination is compounded by a tendency to 

view technology as a solution to all 

problems—an attitude shared by both donors 

and target countries. 

 1

 Britain’s Department for International Development. 

The UK IT/IS sector strongly advocates the 

use of structured methods, based upon 

documented sequences or work programs that 

form a paper trail. Two examples of such 

approaches are the Structured Systems 

Analysis and Design Method and Project 

Controlled Environments. Involving the 

client in the decisionmaking process 

facilitates ownership. Spelling out the 

ultimate benefit of the solution being 

delivered also helps. 

Reasons for project failure include: 

• Differing agendas of senior civil servants. 

• Lack of knowledge about stakeholders 

and influencers. 

• Insufficient funding. 

• Failure to recognize the impact of 

technology implementation upon the 

culture and working practices of the 

nations. 

• Poor project management. 

• Lack of flexibility in approach. 

The KPMG2

 Survey (1995) provides some

indications of the relative importance of 

2

 KPMG is an e-business consultant firm. 

15 
different causes of project failure. The top six 

causes were: 

• Project objectives not fully specified. 

• Bad planning and estimating. Projects 

take more time in Africa than do 

European or US projects. 

• Technology new to organization. 

• Inadequate project management 

methodology. 

• Insufficient senior staff on team. Careers 

are built upon influence and connections, 

mostly family formed, and as such the 

most capable individual with no influence 

is unlikely to achieve a senior position. 

• Poor performance by suppliers of 

hardware or software. This is very 

common. Local suppliers are installing 

the very latest technology, which 

frequently is not supported in the major 

market places, due to lack of skills in that 

software or hardware arena. 

In summary, infrastructure—telecommunications, roads, utilities, etc.—in Africa is 

poor and is likely to remain so for some time. 

UK and US infrastructures have been 

constructed over centuries. Africa is trying to 

catch up with a developed country ideal, 

which is itself moving away at a still faster 

rate. Africa needs the top-level assistance 

that the wealthiest banks and governments 

can buy, not the skills that are attracted by the 

reduction in competition. Illness, HIV in 

particular, will inevitably have a negative 

impact upon long-term sustainable 

development. A route for “catching up” with 

the First World would be to move 

immediately from fixed landlines to mobile 

telecommunications or satellite, but it is 

dependent upon nation states having sufficient 

funding resources to develop in the first place 

and then having sufficient funds to 

continually evolve. 

Project Africa 

The purpose of this project is to develop an 

“initial infrastructure” to promote continentwide adoption of networked PC architecture. 

Such an infrastructure would provide a basis 

for African people to exchange information 

with others for their mutual benefit, and it 

would allow the implementation of 

knowledge dissemination for wide benefits to 

their people. 

The project is designed with several 

assumptions: that there is a strong desire to 

get “connected” with many other peoples of 

the world and their nations; and that 

potentially there are great benefits from better 

access to more useful information. However, 

today there is little or no communications 

infrastructure, as well as little or no electrical 

supply infrastructure. 

This project will require significant financial 

stamina to maintain and achieve success. The 

payback to the “lender” is access over time to 

a richer and more robust financial 

marketplace. The project should be 

considered as a 10-to-20-year effort. To 

assure logistical efficiency, several African 

factories and logistical infrastructures should 

be established. The project needs service 

support of a scale not currently available, and 

it needs to train several million people per 

year. 

The project requires that a Pan-African 

wireless network be established, because a 

traditional network infrastructure will take too 

long and be too fragile. Because of a lack of 

reliable electrical supply lines, two powersupply options are considered: (1) entry level 

“Clockwork” powered as per “wind up” radio 

16 
or (2) mobile phones powered by energy from

walking. Additionally, associated 

infrastructure must be established for the 

support of service providers, trainers, and 

server access and, where applicable, 

applications services, such as "corporate" 

systems. 

Implementation would start in schools and 

libraries, improving access to information for 

youths and education, through a multi-faceted 

approach. For example, choose a small pilot 

of 100,000 seats and build a robust solution. 

Allow few changes and use best-practice 

solutions from large developed networks. 

Develop stakeholders for each country—

perhaps different countries could choose 

different aspects of implementation to 

support. 

Africa needs this solution but only in a way 

that suits the African people. A total cost of 

approximately $500 to $1,000 dollars per 

connected PC needs to be found, as well as a 

long-term approach to finance—perhaps some

form of tie-in to each country’s improvement 

in GNP. Alternatively, provide a service and 

then have gradual approaches to service 

charges until break-even is achieved. 

Hardware needs to have a long shelf life and 

some form of security is needed to protect 

information privacy. 

Benefits to the lenders include the creation of 

a large and diverse community and the 

potential to be involved in the creation of a 

long-term wealth-creation program. The 

program would provide a well locked-in 

community of users: it should be attractive to 

global IT suppliers. 

What is required for the project to be 

successful? Global Information Technology 

suppliers must “lend” know-how and material 

assistance. Developed countries must provide 

starting capital. Requisite financing could be 

achieved by collectively pooling assistance 

from wealthier countries. The program, if 

implemented, would result in a new pool of 

labor for the global IT economy, contributing 

greatly to African development. 

Discussion Highlights 

Project Africa 

One participant noted that the Rascom3

experience showed that the best way to slow 

such a project is to have government 

involvement. Thus, in order for such a bold 

project to succeed, there needs to be an 

aggressive initiative driven by private sector 

interests. Moreover, a clear financial 

incentive, or profit motive, is also necessary 

for such a project to ultimately succeed. 

Improving African Technology 

The issue of the availability of upgraded 

computer technology, or lack thereof, for 

African countries, was raised. How much can 

be done with existing computers and the 

available software? Could there be a way to 

recycle technology rather than having 

“outdated” models dumped into landfills? 

What circumstances belie Africans to be the 

recipients of outmoded technology? It was 

posited that hardware availability is never the 

problem, but rather the challenge is 

developing the human capacity necessary to 

obtain it and use it effectively. 

 3

 The African Regional Satellite Communications

Organizations, located in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. 

17 
18 
Panel III: Economic, Social and 

Political Impact of Information 

Technology 

This panel’s primary objective was to address 

the interplay of IT with the economic, social, 

and political forces controlling development 

in Africa over the next few years. For the 

purposes of this workshop the terms 

“Information Technology” (IT) and 

“Information and Communication 

Technologies” (ICTs) were used 

interchangeably. The subject of discussion 

was drawn sufficiently broadly to include 

telecommunications, computers and software, 

the Internet, and TV and radio broadcasting. 

The discussion also explored the role of 

human resources in installing and operating 

IT, as well as in setting and enforcing IT 

policy. 

The global spread of the information 

revolution has moved slowly in Africa. 

Numerous obstacles are restricting the full 

economic, social, cultural, and political 

flourishing of Africa. The continent is facing 

social crises—mainly caused by wars—but 

also due in part to poverty, diseases 

(particularly HIV/AIDS and dysentery), 

malnutrition, population shifts, and illiteracy. 

The difficulties of handling these phenomena, 

coupled with over-indebtedness, have limited 

the ability of African nations to take charge of

their own development. 

African Internet: A Status Report 

African nations have very high unmet 

demands for information and 

communications, indeed, among the world’s 

highest. The region has shown trends over 

the past decade toward both democracy and 

market-oriented economic policies. There is a 

large potential impact in the future from IT, 

but that potential is largely unrealized. 

The IT infrastructure is expanding rapidly in 

Africa. Five years ago, only a handful of 

countries had GSM cellular operators and 

local Internet access. There are now over 600 

ISPs operating, including ISPs in all African 

countries. There are almost 100 mobile 

providers and more subscribers to mobile 

lines than fixed lines in Africa. Some

countries are now moving toward full 

competition in fixed telecom networks. 

The infrastructure differs greatly among 

regions in Africa (see Table on page 20). 

New infrastructure and technologies are 

increasingly being adopted in Africa, 

including: 

• Cellular and mobile phones. 

• Wireless (including local loop and data 

services). 

• GMPCS4

 (Globalstar). 

• GEO satellites (Intelsat, Panamsat, 

Lockheed-Martin, Eutelsat, NewSkies, 

Europestar, Anatolia, Nilesat, Arabsat). 

• Fiber-optics (both national networks and 

regional networks, such as WASC/SAFE 

and Antantis-2). 

• LEO data satellites (e.g., HealthNet, 

VITASat). 

• Data broadcasting (i.e., WorldSpace and 

DSTV). 

• Voice over the Internet (VOIP). 

• Low cost Internet appliances such as settop boxes. 

 4

 Global Mobile Personal Communications via 

Satellite. 

19 
Regional Technology Infrastructure 

Region 

Dialup 

Internet 

Subscribers 

International 

Outgoing 

Bandwidth

Kbps 

Number of ISPs Population 

(millions) 

Dialup 

Subscribers Per 

Million People 

Central 10,100 3,072 17 71.48 141 

East 120,600 24,894 80 216.42 557 

North 279,000 294,096 360 139.25 2,004 

South* 80,350 33,044 35 69.42 1,157 

South Africa 750,000 350,000 80 44.31 16,926 

West 122,725 68,072 77 228.78 536 

Africa 1,362,775 773,178 649 769.66 1,771 *

Exclusive of South Africa 

Source: Mike Jensen “The African Internet: A Status Report”

Because of the high cost of local calls, e-mail 

is by far the most popular application of the 

Internet; its biggest effect has been to reduce 

the cost of international communications. 

Through use of the Internet, businesses, 

individuals, the media, non-governmental 

organizations (NGOs) and governments have 

been able to reduce their isolation, improve 

decisionmaking, obtain additional resources, 

and generally achieve better communications 

with disparate family members, friends, 

colleagues and partners. 

Economic Impact 

The IT infrastructure for business is 

improving. Telecommunication services are 

increasingly available, and now include both 

basic and advanced services such as video 

conferencing and live data streaming. Supply 

of telecommunication equipment is 

improving, especially mobile and fixed 

wireless, as is computer equipment supply for 

both consumers and businesses. Corporate 

Internet access is available, as are leased lines 

and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) 

connections. Business centers and hosting 

services (e.g., UUNET Africa, BusyInternet 

Ghana) are serving business customers. 

Consumer telephone and Internet access 

services (e.g., AfricaOnline's E-Touch, 

Sonatel's telecenters) are improving, and 

extending service into less affluent 

populations and more rural populations. 

As a result of the improving infrastructure, 

Africa is beginning to see changes in business 

operations, e-commerce, and IT-based goods 

and services. For example, African craftmakers are selling their wares via the web 

through an NGO called PeopLink. Similarly, 

a West African women's fishing cooperative 

has created a website for its 7,000 members to 

promote their produce, monitor export 

markets, and negotiate prices with buyers 

overseas. In Ethiopia, Ethiolink is selling 

goats over the Internet; Ethiopians of the 

Diaspora can buy a goat on the web to be 

delivered anywhere in the country, and are 

doing so to supply animals for family 

celebrations. IT is improving banking and 

other financial services in countries such as 

Morocco and Zimbabwe. 

Opportunities are being created for African 

enterprises to market teleservices, such as 

data entry, to developed nations. The low 

cost of labor in Africa allows firms to 

compete in transcribing paper archives, 

bookkeeping, as well as medical, financial, 

and insurance records transcriptions—for 

example, a Moroccan ISP is currently 

digitizing France's national archives. 

20 
International call centers in Togo and 

Mauritius are providing competitive 

telephone support services for foreign 

companies. One of the most unusual 

examples occurs in Cape Verde, where 

security guards monitor surveillance cameras 

located in Boston, calling for on-the-ground 

support in Boston if intruders are detected. 

Social Impact

There is considerable interest in distance 

education and training in Africa. The African 

Virtual University already has fee-paying 

students on 24 university campuses in Africa 

linked to teachers and libraries worldwide via 

the Internet. Cisco Network Academies are 

establishing IP network training in less 

developed countries (LDCs), and even in 

Kinshasa, in spite of the difficulties of

working in the Congo. The African Digital 

Library has been established, making 

copyrighted material available at subsidized 

rates for Africans. School-based telecenters 

are being created in Uganda. Similarly, 

applications are being developed in health 

services. Thus, x-rays are being e-mailed in 

Mozambique, making expert medical 

evaluation available to patients without 

requiring travel to the specialist. Results of

blood tests are being transmitted via text on 

mobile phones in South Africa. 

Effects are also being felt on governance and 

public participation in the political arena. For 

example, the Government of Lesotho recently 

declared that all announcements for cabinet 

and committee meetings would be made only 

by e-mail. Some administrations (including 

those in South Africa, Algeria, and Tunisia) 

now provide immediate global access to 

venders via the web. In Senegal, technology 

is being applied to local government 

decisionmaking and planning. Mobile text 

messaging is being applied for crime 

reporting in South Africa, and has “been 

planned for application in farm violence 

reporting in Zimbabwe.”

21 
22 
Côte d’Ivoire and the New

Information Age 

In Côte d’Ivoire, full access to the Internet has 

not yet been achieved. In fact, many regions 

within the country remain without any 

electronic connectivity at all; the average 

teledensity (number of main lines per 100 

inhabitants) was only 2.5 compared to 45 in 

Europe, an indication of the low level of 

socio-economic development of the country. 

The information age can facilitate growth and 

fuel development in Côte d’Ivoire. 

Social Impact 

Education. Information technology can help 

reduce the education gap and facilitate access 

to other services, such as healthcare. The 

illiteracy rate in Côte d’Ivoire is high, 

especially among women; there are few 

schools and universities. The explosion today 

in the number of Ivorian students seeking 

admission to higher education surpasses by 

far the capacity available, resulting in large 

numbers of students per class. The very few 

libraries have very limited access to 

international journals and have very small and 

old collections of books and monographs. 

They do not have budgets to buy new books. 

To respond to the challenges and crises facing 

education in Côte d’Ivoire, the new 

information and communication technologies 

facilitate learning environments that are more 

meaningful and responsive to the specific 

needs of students and teachers. The Internet 

creates opportunities to provide equitable 

remote access to resources and to 

international distance education facilities; it is 

connecting schools, universities, and research 

centers to national and international distance 

education facilities. IT can extend the reach 

of educational facilities in informal learning 

into the community level. Today, students 

can study and research using computers, 

video, television, film, multimedia, and 

networks. Libraries, in theory, can now be 

without borders, accessed globally. However, 

the task at hand is to find the political will and 

the money to make that a reality. 

The World Bank, through its Global 

Development Learning Network (GDLN), has 

integrated Côte d’Ivoire in its network of 

institutions of West Africa. Abidjan is 

connected through the “Centre d’Education à 

Distance,” located on the campus of the 

Public Administration School. Through the 

World Bank’s project, video teleconferences, 

seminars, and certification courses offer 

executives, students, teachers, or researchers 

the opportunity to share knowledge, to learn, 

and exchange experiences. 

Health. The impact of telemedicine in Côte 

d’Ivoire is very low. However, one of IT’s 

most visible benefits is seen in the ability of

health researchers and professionals to access 

up-to-date research and reference material. In 

cities such as Abidjan, Bouake, or Daloa, the 

Internet has afforded health workers rapid 

information exchange, conferencing, distance 

learning, and access to urgent advice or 

diagnosis assistance. As a result, many 

physicians have improved their diagnoses 

through global networks. With the Internet, 

networking allows the dissemination of best 

practices for fighting against HIV/AIDS—

such as “risk mapping.” 

Economic Impact 

In the past, there was a need for clerical 

assistance to create documents; there was an 

average of one secretary for every two 

professionals. Now, the number of secretaries 

is decreasing, because most of the 

professionals type their letters and papers 

themselves and attach files directly to their 

electronic mail. Former secretaries are 

trained to be administrative assistants with 

new computer-based skills. 

23 
The new information and communication 

technologies have created new types of jobs. 

Internet sites, cyber-cafés, telecenters and 

business centers have grown fast, offering 

services from the provision of e-mail 

addresses for Internet access to the hosting of 

web pages or websites to the design of web 

pages and websites. Each telecenter or cybercafé employs a minimum of three employees; 

equipment tends to include two or more of the 

following technologies: cellphones, faxes, 

computers, Internet connections, 

photocopiers, and scanners. Such facilities 

are unfortunately faced with the high prices of 

the telecommunication lines imposed by Côte 

d’Ivoire Telecom, the only company selling 

national and international telephone lines. 

The fixed telephone has failed to efficiently 

serve urban and rural areas. 

The mobile phone arrival has been like a 

“communication miracle” in the remote areas. 

It also has widened telephone access to all 

social classes. Communication within the 

country and outside the country is now 

relatively easy; the problem is the cost, but 

with the benefits of competition (more than 

one mobile phone company), the user will get 

a lot for his or her money. There are three 

mobile phone companies: IVOIRIS, 

TELECEL and COMSTAR; in December 

2000, these together had 322,500 clients. 

Since the Leland Internet node was opened in 

1996, the number of ISPs has increased. 

Today, there are four ISPs in Côte d’Ivoire: 

AFRICAONLINE, AFNET, COMAFRIQUE 

and AVISO. Very few ISPs are settled in the 

countryside—AFRICAONLINE in Bouake 

and Daloa, and AVISO in Bouake and SanPêdro. However, many of the potential users 

in the regions are not benefiting. 

Telephone Statistics for Côte d’Ivoire 

Year 

Fixed 

Phone 

Lines 

Mobile 

Phones 

Population Ratio of

Adoption 

1997 142,322 36,005 15,292,000 1.17 % 

1998 171,001 91,212 15,854,000 1.65 % 

1999 219,283 257,134 16,377,182 2.91 %

2000 240,000 322,500 16,377,182 3.32 %

Community Development Experience 

While conducting work in poor, rural areas of 

Côte d’Ivoire, community organizations have 

obtained important information and 

documents from the Internet that helped in 

developing appropriate methods and 

techniques for service delivery to the poor—

mainly women farmers. 

One project, done in cooperation with a 

private ISP company, was an effort to link 

farmers’ cooperatives to the “planetary 

village” through the establishment of 

telecenters in rural areas. The pilot project 

was done with the Cooperative of Alepe, a 

farming village roughly one hundred miles 

Internet Connectivity in Côte d’Ivoire

To USA: Leland Node (established in 1996) 

at 256 Kbps via MCI 

To France: one connection at 1,000 Kbps 

via France Telecom

To Canada: one connection at 256 Kbps via 

Teleglobe 

from Abidjan. The cooperative bought some

equipment (computers and a printer), and the 

project provided more (fax, server, 

photocopier, scanner) and an Internet 

connection—and a telecenter was established. 

Literate members of the cooperative were 

trained in the use of the new technologies, 

with emphasis on how to access information 

from the web, particularly the world’s market 

24 
prices of coffee and cocoa. The people served 

by the project were able to exchange mail 

internationally as well as locally. Later on, 

the cooperative decided to earn money from

the center and opened it to the public, 

applying a sliding scale of fees that enable the 

disenfranchised—mainly women’s 

associations—to benefit from the services. 

The Telecenter of Alepe has saved the local 

population many trips to the cities and 

allowed them to enjoy easy, and relatively 

inexpensive, national and international 

communication. 

Today, demand for the services of the 

cooperative’s telecenter has increased to the 

point that it has been able to attract a mobile 

phone company to extend its network in 

Alepe: the telecenter sells the company’s 

cellular phones and retains a commission. 

Peace Corps volunteers who were trained in 

that village were happy to find the telecenter 

and used it frequently in their leisure time for 

e-mail and surfing on the net. Thus, the 

introduction of the telecenter has fostered 

development in this remote area by shortening 

the distances to the outside world. 

Another example of a successful initiative 

involved the diffusion of cocoa and coffee 

prices to farmers. The agricultural extension 

agency (ANADER), based in Abidjan, 

e-mails world coffee and cocoa market prices 

to its extension agents (ANADER’s intranet 

system covers the entire country). The agents 

then relay the information to farmers. The 

farmers and farmers’ cooperatives are then 

able to get better prices for their products. 

Another successful example involves 

opportunities to apply for grants on the web. 

One of the members of a network devoted to 

women in agriculture found a call for 

proposals on the net, developed a proposal for 

an agriculture project to benefit a group of 

women farmers in the north of the Côte 

d’Ivoire, and submitted it via the Internet. 

Her proposal was successful, and she got the 

funding to finance her project—which is 

presently helping about 100 young farmers to 

raise bees to produce honey, thereby earning 

money. The income generated by this project 

has made a difference in their lives. 

Political Impact 

In Côte d’Ivoire, the impact of the new 

information and communication technology 

on the media has been phenomenal; IT 

presents interesting opportunities as well as 

challenges to the media. Through electronic 

versions of newspapers, a form of democracy 

has emerged. Ivorians of the Diaspora can 

follow events in the country through Internet 

versions of local newspapers, and they can 

contribute to political debate via the Internet. 

Local radio can be heard on the Internet, and 

some newspapers are on-line and can be 

consulted and read from all over the world. 

This international availability of information 

has brought more transparency in the election 

process. 

National leaders now have websites where all 

information on their activities and plans are 

posted, facilitating greater interaction with the 

populace, via e-mails. Political parties, too, 

use websites for campaigns; they reach more 

people than with individual visits. 

The example provided by the recent, 

controversial election in Côte d’Ivoire is 

worth sharing. The parties created a website 

for the campaign and provided cellphones to 

their representatives. Fax machines were set 

up to record the votes from all the regions, 

and the representatives of the different parties 

had cellphones. As soon as the counts of the 

votes were made, the representatives of the 

different parties signed the official report. 

Copies of the signed, validated reports were 

given to the representatives with the 

25 
indication of the number of votes for each 

candidate. 

Immediately, the representatives 

communicated the results to their 

headquarters. When the fax was not 

available, the cellphone or regular phone was 

used to communicate the information to the 

headquarters in Abidjan, which, in turn, put 

the information on-line (the websites were 

regularly updated by an IT specialist). Close 

monitoring of the election on-line prevented a 

fraudulent election victory; transparency was 

made possible by using the new information 

and communication technologies. This is a 

new phenomenon in Côte d’Ivoire. 

The weaknesses of IT in Côte d’Ivoire include 

the high cost of computer equipment; weak 

maintenance of hardware and software; low 

reliability of telephone lines; lack of 

widespread, low-cost access to the Internet; 

lack of human capacity to utilize the 

technology; and lack of low-cost telephone 

lines. 

The South African Experience: A 

Regulator’s Viewpoint 

In South Africa, a country in transition, the 

regulator’s job was thankless but necessary. 

In spite of some very difficult hurdles along 

the way, the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) 

discharged its responsibilities beyond 

expectations. The growth in information 

technology in South Africa since 1997 (when 

SATRA came into existence) is now known 

and admired worldwide, and the regulatory 

regime of progressive interconnection 

guidelines is known equally well. Indeed, 

dial tone teledensity grew from four to eleven 

percent during that period. Much more could 

have been accomplished, had it not been for 

some serious high-level challenges faced by 

SATRA. 

Discussion of this subject is timely. 

Information technology is changing even 

more rapidly, and Africa’s IT development is 

now at a critical juncture. Africa can move 

forward and benefit greatly, or regress as the 

rest of the world moves forward. Information 

technology has profound economic, social, 

and political implications on the future of

Africa. The potential impact of the attitudes 

and behavior of the very African leaders who 

should be carrying the torch for the adoption 

of information technology is crucial. 

One point that remains very clear is that the 

overriding impact of information technology 

is to nurture democracy. Democracy relies 

almost exclusively on the free exchange of 

information within a population; in countries 

ruled by undemocratic leadership there is a 

clear fear of information technology, resulting 

in strong attempts to ‘regulate’ technologies 

like the Internet. 

The Social Impact 

Education is the cornerstone of any country’s 

development. Information technology relies 

on the availability of the simple dial tone. In 

a country such as South Africa one finds that 

the legacy of poor education infrastructure 

can be significantly corrected with teleeducation. Indeed, in the urban areas of 

South Africa, students have access to 

television programs on math, physics, and 

chemistry. In rural South Africa, however, 

one has to have a satellite dish to access the 

same programs. This suggests a larger trend: 

broadly, rural Africans do not have access to 

the same information technology benefits that 

urban Africans have—and Africa is generally 

a rural continent. 

It is not a surprise that one sees a relatively 

strong correlation between low teledensity, 

for example, with a lack of social 

development. 

26 
The Economic Impact 

There is very little doubt that information 

technology has a positive development on the 

economy of African countries. South Africa’s 

economy has grown over the years, even 

during the difficult days factories operated 

with telephone service, electricity, and water. 

And, certainly, throughout the country’s 

recent history, communications empowerment 

for the productive sector—the ability to send 

first a telex, and then a fax, and today an 

e-mail—has helped economic growth. 

Today in South Africa, industry complains 

most about the lack of bandwidth, affordable 

or not, for a modern information technology 

network. Here the challenge that ISPs face is 

that the government, as the major (and only) 

player in the industry, greatly fears 

competition from the private sector. Foreign 

investors find themselves having to become

minority partners with the government in 

order to play any type of role. 

One of the success stories in South Africa is 

the community telephone kiosk. In rural and 

semi-urban areas these take the form of 

containers one ordinarily sees on ocean-going 

cargo ships. For wireless service, they have a 

cellular antenna and cellular pay telephones 

inside. 

The Political Implications 

There is a strong correlation between low 

teledensity and low development of 

democratic institutions. Higher teledensity 

should, and does, come first. An informed 

populace cannot stand poor governance. The 

leadership in some African countries, afraid 

of democracy and its attendant short terms in 

office for elected officials, often goes to great 

lengths to regulate the growth of information 

technology. Often the excuse given is that the 

country does not have the resources to 

develop the information technology 

infrastructure. 

What the leadership in these countries really 

means, of course, is that it does not wish to 

see the information technology infrastructure 

developed. The reluctance to see the growth 

of the IT infrastructure among some African 

leaders is based upon a fear of its political 

impact. Leaders worry that informed citizens 

would have higher expectations of their 

governments. 

The WTO Imperative 

The WTO holds the potential to make a huge 

positive difference in the development of

information technology on the African 

continent. However, that potential was 

undermined when the small investment 

required for setting up independent regulators 

was not factored into the WTO mechanisms. 

Sanctions for non-compliance are well 

provided for, but not technical assistance for 

success. 

Under the WTO Agreement of 

Telecommunications Services, signatory 

countries on the African continent stand a 

better chance of attracting foreign investment 

for their business people with information 

technology service licenses. This is true 

provided the African countries take certain 

policy initiatives. What has generally been 

problematic for the countries has been the 

lack of resources to carry out the initiatives 

they have agreed to take: this is particularly 

true in setting up independent regulators. It is 

also true, however, that in some countries the 

ostensibly independent regulators are set up 

with no intention that they carry out their 

nominal functions, particularly where the 

government owns the players in the 

telecommunications industry. 

Examples of both success and lack of success 

are to be found in Southern Africa. Lesotho 

is an excellent example of success: the 

government sold most (70 percent) of the 

national telephone company, and today 

27 
Lesotho shows vivid signs of clearly having 

an independent regulator. In South Africa, by 

contrast, the Minister of Communications, as 

the head of several players in a regulated 

industry, was alarmed that she was subject to 

regulation by the independent regulator. The 

result has been messy, with industry not 

trusting government policy promulgated by 

the minister because the minister is perceived 

to be setting policy to protect her own 

interests in the industry. This type of 

behavior makes it difficult for potential 

investors to believe that government policy is 

to be taken seriously or that a minister will act 

responsibly when making decisions. 

Discussion Highlights 

Potential Pitfalls 

One presenter noted that this workshop was 

based on the premises that technology can be 

used as an agent for change and that 

technology can promote economic growth. 

However, to take advantage of the technology 

requires equipment, access, and the 

knowledge of how to create the content and 

how to access existing content. Such 

knowledge has been limited and should 

include local content. 

Equipment is expensive; the access to the 

Internet is also expensive (telephone lines and 

ISPs). It is important that governments 

reduce relevant tariffs. Moreover, culture can 

be a key impediment; there is a lack of 

openness and transparency with governments 

often operating in an atmosphere of mistrust 

and corruption. African policymakers must 

allow everyone to have access to information. 

Possibilities 

It was emphasized that radio must be a major 

focus in communications development. A 

presenter suggested that the Internet, used in 

tandem with radio, could disseminate 

information to aid in conflict prevention. A 

participant noted that one of the most 

important communications technologies in 

Africa, World Space, utilizes satellite 

technology for radio programming, a very 

powerful tool that can reach the rural poor. 

Although the predominant mode of 

communication remains radio and television, 

some political parties, particularly in 

Côte d’Ivoire, are trying to use websites. 

However, the general population does not 

have access to the Internet and therefore its 

political impact remains limited. As such, it 

was suggested that programs should continue 

to be developed, such as the Leland Initiative, 

which help increase Internet access, make 

telecom companies more available to the 

general public, and promote local capacity 

building in Africa. 

28 
Panel IV: Regional Breakout 

Sessions and Group 

Presentations 

The fundamental question addressed in the 

regional breakout sessions was: what is the 

role of IT in conflict, political change, and 

economic development? In discussing this 

broad question, conference participants were 

asked to focus on identifying the e-readiness 

of the countries within the various regions—

West, Central, East, and Southern. Moreover, 

how do the four factors—Culture, 

Competence, Capital, and Control—influence 

who uses IT and for what purpose in the 

economic, social, and political systems within 

African nations? Also, what will be the 

economic, social, and political implications of 

the different patterns of IT that will be 

expected to emerge across the continent? 

With respect to the four regions, all 

participants were asked to specifically 

consider the following: 

• How do cultural issues act as drivers for 

or impediments to: conflict, political 

change, and economic development? 

• What is the educational capacity and the 

institutional competence? 

• What is the financial and banking 

environment of your region? 

• How is Information Technology 

controlled–by the government, private 

sector, or nonstate actors? 

As participants discovered, the differences in 

Internet connectivity and technology 

illustrated the complexity, and challenge, of 

IT diffusion in Africa. 

Southern Africa: Focus on South 

Africa 

The overall discussion concentrated on the 

role of language and culture, issues of state 

control over IT, and the IT-economic 

development and IT-education nexuses. 

Commentary on conflict and political change 

was brief, but a number of important points 

were made. Nationalism and ethnic politics 

were essentially absent from the discussion. 

South Africa is considerably more affluent 

than other Sub-Saharan countries and has a 

more extensive IT infrastructure. As a result 

of South Africa’s long isolationist and active 

“defense” posture, the nation had developed 

indigenously a good base of intellectual 

property. Can these properties now be 

harnessed with IT to the advantage of South 

Africa? While no direct reply was made 

regarding South Africa’s ability to muster its 

intellectual properties with IT, it was noted 

that the owners of these properties are 

representative of the former elite, a small 

subset of the total population, and that the 

participation of others is still needed. 

Although labor costs are low in South Africa, 

most agreed that other economic variables, 

such as sophistication of the work force as 

well as the “bottom line,” ultimately were 

more important than the cost of labor. One 

participant commented that the bottom line 

was that for anyone interested in doing 

business in Africa, South Africa is at the top 

of the list, no matter what risks might be 

present. 

Discussants disagreed regarding whether the 

preponderance of English on the worldwide 

web constituted a “language gap.” Some

argued that the use of English was a unifying 

force in South Africa—a country with 11 

official languages. English is lingua franca 

of five Internet radio stations, two broadcast 

29 
30 
multi-lingual programs, and it is not 

uncommon for multiple language utterances 

to be used in the same broadcast sequence. 

Others noted that while language may be a 

centripetal force, language has also been 

divisive or a centrifugal force, and that some

tragic events were directly related to the issue 

of language. A discussant asked if Southern 

Africa as a region has an advantage beyond 

its proximity to South Africa due to English 

as lingua franca. Another referenced the 

language policies in the UK as examples of 

how governments can legislate dual-web 

language. 

The group then turned to a discussion of why 

South Africa has been such fertile ground for 

modern IT growth. What enabled South 

Africa to move as fast as it did? Was IT a 

driver and catalyst for the other changes in 

South Africa? 

Some of the most important conditions behind 

the rapid growth of IT in South Africa are: a 

well-developed infrastructure, greater 

political stability, and a good education 

systemthe ground was fertile for modern IT 

diffusion. 

Some discussants agreed, but noted that, 

while these facilitating structural features 

might be necessary conditions, they are not 

sufficient conditions. Other African states, 

notably Uganda and Sierra Leone, also 

enjoyed similar features but have not been as 

fertile for IT diffusion. It was suggested that 

in addition to these structural foundations, it 

was important that contracts were honored. 

South Africa was then compared to the 

Nigeria of the 1970s. However, it was noted 

that Nigeria has not experienced a similar 

diffusion of IT. 

With respect to the educational structure as an 

agent for IT diffusion, no one disputed that 

the South African educational system is 

relatively better than that of neighboring 

states. 

One participant noted that, while the South 

African educational system is “better,” South 

African students tend to focus on social 

science and arts, and not engineering or other 

technical fields, however, this emphasis has 

changed. Does this imbalance have important 

implications for the capacity of South African 

educational systems to foster IT diffusion? 

Another participant responded that while 

earlier generations did tend to favor nontechnical education and training, the new 

generation did not. Thus participants raised 

the need to distinguish between the impacts of 

technical education and basic education as 

agents for aggregate diffusion. 

Another participant noted that under apartheid 

South Africa had to have a good IT structure 

(Telecom) for state security, and that when 

“new” government officials came to power 

they saw the Telecom as the “shining light” 

and recognized the need to protect this status. 

This person noted that the decision to protect 

the IT sector also acted to stifle the additional 

development that can only occur in a 

competitive environment. 

Discussion on this topic concluded with the 

hypothesis that the value of a free press and 

free expression, which was even appreciated 

by some under apartheid, spills over to 

facilitate greater acceptance for IT diffusion, 

and that the South African tradition of an 

independent judiciary further boosted the 

diffusion of IT. 

Discussants then considered the role of IT in 

reducing long-term development risks, such 

as crime, brain drain, and AIDS, that may if 

left unchecked lead to a downward 

development path for South Africa. IT can be 

applied to increase the efficiency of police 

officers and public health officials, as well as 

31 
to create job opportunities in South Africa for 

those who might otherwise emigrate. 

This revealed potentially counteracting 

impacts. One participant noted that with 

increased IT use financial assets are 

expatriated more quickly. This suggested 

elements of both instability as well as safety 

for investors as a result of the ability of ITfacilitated movement of assets. Another 

person concurred with the simultaneous 

elements of both stability and instability of

IT. He noted that the work force could 

benefit from better organization, while at the 

same time management could streamline 

extraction and profit generating processes. 

One person noted that townships are among 

the highest risk for child abuse and that 

townships are among the least served IT 

areas. What, she asked, is the role of IT for 

this situation? One person replied that 

townships and rural areas, both under-served, 

have important differences, and that the most 

important is that townships can be more easily 

connected as a result of the close proximity to 

already connected areas. 

The group then turned to a long discussion 

about the issue of control, which can be 

reduced to two themes. First, how does South 

Africa directly control IT use and diffusion? 

Second, how does this direct control impact 

South Africa’s ability make decisions, which 

determine future options for itself as well as 

for other countries?

An example of the consequences of the direct 

control exercised by the South African 

government was offered: Cisco dominance of 

router sales alongside the propensity of the 

State Information Technology Association 

(SITA) to order Cisco routers. It was, 

moreover, suggested that this dominance is 

the result of non-rational cost benefit analyses 

by SITA. It was also noted that SITA has 

inadequately trained personnel to oversee and 

assess IT projects, a condition that is 

magnified by the short tenures of SITA 

Managing Directors (five to seven in the 

recent past); consequently, non-qualified 

implementers are placed in the critical 

implementation role for Ministry of Public 

Administration decisions. 

The outsourcing of all IT needs by many 

banks to the Telecom, a governmental entity, 

was another example cited of increasing 

South African state control over the IT sector. 

This reinforced the point that the government 

controls or manages all important aspects of 

IT in South Africa, and that control, 

ownership, and capital are tied up in the same

entity. On the issue of concentrating 

influence in the government qua monopoly, 

one participant noted that there were 

economic monopolies like the former AT&T, 

and that governmental-regulated economic 

monopolies are very different from

monopolies that integrate both economic and 

political power. 

Group discussion then turned to legislation 

under consideration that may result in the 

inoperability of ISPs under their current 

licensing agreements and requirement that 

banks secure new licenses to operate their 

ATMs. This demonstrates that control of IT 

is increasingly being centralized under the 

Minister of Communications. In essence, no 

matter what the law might say, the state 

“monopoly” determines the outcome. 

It was noted that among information 

technologies, the Internet is the primary target 

for government “control.” The desire to 

control the Internet is prevalent despite the 

fact that it is among the more difficult ITs to 

dominate. In particular, the inability to 

control the Internet could increase the 

propensity to use force as a control 

mechanism. A number of participants 

32 
thought that the press could be used to 

mitigate this potential scenario. 

A number of questions were raised reflecting 

concerns about the ability to resist control: 

• Will technology find a way around 

government systems despite their best 

efforts to impede diffusion? 

• Will governments be a significant obstacle 

to IT diffusion? 

• Will governments be realistic and see the 

private sector as an ally? 

Participants agreed that with the right 

incentives people will find a way around 

impediments regardless of the sanction, and 

that politics, not technology, will be the 

answer to many of these questions. One 

observer noted that many non-IT issues and 

policies are raised in discussion about IT—IT 

is the carrot; IT is what is needed for 

countries to improve both economically and 

socially. In this dialogue IT diffusion is seen 

as the head domino: do IT right and the rest 

will fall in place; get IT right and the rest will 

be right. 

An example of path-dependent control was 

given in the South Africa regulation 

experience. Since South Africa was the first 

to regulate—or at least a leader in IT 

regulation—other African states look to the 

South Africa regulation experience for 

guidance in their own regulatory processes. 

Thus, the South African experience and 

myriad IT decisions made by South Africa 

will form much of the lessons-learned 

platform other African states will use to filter 

their own decisionmaking process. 

Discussion then turned to the role of South 

Africa for other African states, and in 

particular the South African Development 

Community (SADC) states. Some thought 

that the South African experience could 

potentially be a good model for SADC. 

However, some participants questioned 

whether the South Africa plan would diffuse 

through the region. One person noted that the 

bifurcation of organization, with management 

in the international sphere and the rest of 

organizational structures in the domestic 

arena, would limit the domestic influence on 

the international business. Another cautioned 

that the successes and failures of the South 

African model and experience will have 

implications for other African states, and that 

some of the implications will be “false 

lessons.” 

The question about the regional circulation of 

knowledge was raised, as well as the diffusion 

agent: the .edus or the .orgs? The group 

identified strong institutions and leadership as 

important. 

The Millennium African Recovery Program

(MAP) was discussed5

 as an example of 

regional initiatives, and the African origin of

the plan was seen as a distinct strength of this 

effort. However, it was noted that South 

Africa did not consult other African states and 

that, as a result of the perceived arrogance, 

South Africa was resented to some degree. 

With respect to AIDS, leadership was raised 

as an important issue. One participant noted 

that South African President Mbeki himself 

surfs the Internet, and appears to have gotten 

“bad” information about AIDS from it, and 

appears to have set national AIDS policy 

based on this “bad” information. A number 

of participants noted this as an example of the 

importance of leadership in determining uses 

of the Internet and the Information Revolution 

as a whole. South Africa’s work force is 

 5

 MAP was also called the New African Initiative, but

has been renamed the New Partnership for African 

Development, NEPAD. 

33 
comparatively well educated but still 

vulnerable to AIDS because the available 

information on how to control AIDS has yet 

to be fully effective in changing risky 

behavior. 

Two other potential sources of political and 

economic instability were discussed. First, it 

was proposed that traditional sources of 

information normally controlled by the state 

have been eroded as a result of increased 

Internet connectivity. Second, increased IT 

diffusion was deemed likely to increase 

immigration and the influence of the 

Diaspora. These two trends may pose a 

complex dynamic between an outflow of 

human resources and an inflow of knowledge 

and capital, which together can result in both 

economic and political benefits and 

vulnerabilities. 

Central Africa: Focus on 

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

The political and economic instabilities in this 

sub-region constitute key constraints for 

development of IT. The Democratic Republic 

of the Congo (DROC) is at war with the 

surrounding countries of Burundi, Rwanda, 

and Uganda, and the latter two, through their 

proxies, are occupying almost half of DROC. 

Troops from Zimbabwe and Angola are also 

stationed within the government-controlled 

areas of DROC. 

In addition to regional conflict, DROC’s 

neighbors have been or are still fighting their 

own civil wars. The Government of Angola 

has been at war with the UNITA rebels for 25 

years. Sudan, which borders DROC to the 

northeast, has been mired in civil war for 18 

years. Militias in the Republic of the Congo 

(Brazzaville) are still not completely disarmed 

from civil war in that country, and Chad, 

which fought a 10-year bloody civil war in 

the 1970s and 80s, has struggled with 

insurgency for the past fifteen years. The 

government in the Central African Republic 

recently repelled a coup d’etat. 

Chronic conflict explains, in part, why the 

Central African Economic Community may 

be the least functional of the sub-regional 

economic communities, and in last place in 

terms of the number of radios/televisions, 

telecom facilities, and cellular telephones per 

capita. However, DROC also belongs to 

Southern African Development Community, 

and its main foreign exchange earners—

minerals—are exported via the “southern 

highway,” whose terminus is the port of 

Durban. In addition, the transportation 

infrastructure of eastern DROC is more linked 

to eastern Africa than to Kinshasa. The subregion lacks a geographic cohesion that other 

sub-regions enjoy. 

Finally, the group noted that DROC has been 

plagued by the lack of good governance 

traditions, and that it suffers from crumbling 

infrastructure. However, DROC is resource 

rich and has a potentially unlimited supply of 

electric power that can be exported all over 

the sub-region and beyond. Its poor 

communications infrastructure offers an 

opportunity to leapfrog previous generations 

of technology, as witnessed by the widespread 

utilization of cellular telephones. Further, if 

gain is to be made from adversity, then 

opportunities for progress ought to be seized 

during the reconstruction phase. 

34 
35 
Factors Facilitating or Impeding Change 

In keeping with the recommendations for the 

workshop, participants in the breakout session 

discussed these factors under the “4 C” 

headings: 

Control 

Central state control exists, but because of 

the weak state, IT is without a high degree 

of regulation. 

• 

• Cross-country cellular telephone and 

Internet services are limited by foreign 

military occupation of approximately half

the country—the east and northeast; 

Goma and Bukavu in the Kivu provinces 

are linked to Rwandan telecom services. 

• Absence of overbearing regulation and the 

current Inter-Congolese Dialog process 

offer opportunities for developing a 

favorable policy framework. 

Culture 

• Language. Some 200-250 dialects are 

spoken, with Swahili, Lingala, Tshiluba, 

and Kikongo as officially recognized 

national languages. French is the official 

unifying language in the DROC, but 

English is making inroads. Based on his 

schooling in Uganda, President Joseph 

Kabila speaks English, as do leaders 

Museveni of Uganda and Kagame of 

Rwanda—countries that occupy the East. 

IT technicians in Kisangani, and 

presumably elsewhere, are bi-lingual in 

French and English. Many young 

Congolese have studied English, and 

those who attended the better schools are 

literate in English. It will be interesting to 

see whether France—perhaps via the bias 

of la Francophonie—possibly in concert 

with Belgium, attempts to counter 

growing Anglophone linguistic and 

cultural influence in IT in DROC, 

Rwanda, and Burundi. 

• Nationalism. DROC is not resistant to 

the outside influence of IT, and indeed 

embraces it. The national territory is 

divided de facto by occupying forces, 

which impacts private sector development 

of IT. Internet expansion in the east could 

have potentially destabilizing effects, and, 

because of violent polemics, IT in the 

hands of extremists could be used for 

further disruption. One Mobutu legacy is 

a strong national identity within DROC 

even though irredentist behavior from the 

east threatens national territorial integrity. 

• Stratification. A thin layer of elites uses 

IT in DROC; illiteracy is as high as 70 

percent, which is a limiting factor to the 

widespread use of the Internet. 

• Legal Framework. The justice sector is 

extremely dysfunctional, and justice 

generally is for sale to the highest bidder. 

High court judges officially are paid about 

$50 month. If DROC has a viable legal 

framework for intellectual property rights, 

it is not enforceable under the present 

circumstances. 

• Trust. There is a tendency to hoard 

information because of the difficulty of 

establishing trust beyond ethnic or 

cultural-linguistic groups. 

Competence 

• Sophistication of IT use. DROC is not a 

producer of IT goods and services, but it 

is a producer of a vital raw material, 

which is exported as coltan—utilized in 

36 
manufacturing cellphones.6

 Coltan 

mining has fueled the conflict in the east. 

• Education and training. The level of 

education and training in DROC in IT is 

low and generally not based on merit and 

competence. 

Capital 

• Internal financial capital. The group 

lacked information on this, but according 

to a USAID study conducted in June 

2001, the private sector is ready to 

develop some IT such as Internet 

connectivity. 

• External financial capital. The breakout 

group described problematic rule of law, 

poor governance, corruption, formerly 

very volatile exchange rates, the state of

war, political uncertainty, and a moribund 

business climate overall, as factors 

making DROC (and some other countries 

in the region) a high-risk investment 

environment. 

• Currency. Because of the volatility of the 

Congolese Franc (at least up to June 

2001), the US dollar is the main currency 

in use, especially in the east. 

Congo/Brazzaville, Central African 

Republic, Gabon, and Cameroon use the 

CFA franc. 

• Physical capital. DROC has an abundant 

and cheap supply of electric current from

Inga Dam although access to that 

electricity is limited to a few large cities. 

 6

 Columbite tantalite, coltan for short, is a mineral from

which metallic tantalum is refined; tantalum is an

important material used in the manufacture of 

capacitors, which are used in electronic equipment. 

IT Utilization: What the Next 10 to 20 

Years May Hold 

Governance Applications 

• Increased use of PCs and other IT is 

possible as part of an effort to combat 

corruption by increasing transparency in 

government transactions, such as 

Customs, Ministry of Finance, 

Procurement, and Treasury disbursements. 

Resistance from rent-seeking civil 

servants is expected to impede the 

widespread acceptance of IT in this sector. 

• Increased use of electronic media—

especially short wave, FM and possibly 

digital radio—could facilitate 

communication and civic education, bring 

the hinterlands out of isolation, and 

provide neutral and objective news and 

information. Internet service will be used 

to connect civil society and public sector 

institutions with each other—both inside a 

given country and outside, to the subregion and beyond. 

• Media have also been used for 

propaganda and to encourage genocide, 

such as occurred in Rwanda in 1994, 

when extremists gained control of the 

radio. 

Business Applications 

• IT could be useful in electronic bank 

transfers from regional banks to the 

Central Bank and between regional banks 

and private accounts. 

• If political conditions are stable, IT should 

be beneficial for tourism.

• More efficient and speedier business links 

with the developed countries and around 

the world should lower the costs of doing 

business in Central Africa. 

37 
• Unfortunately, IT in Central Africa may 

encourage scams such as those coming 

out of Nigeria. 

Social Welfare Applications 

• Given the loss of teachers to AIDS, IT 

could provide means for distance learning; 

IT could be critical to filling gaps in 

education and training. 

• IT will likely be used for distance medical 

diagnoses and treatment, as it is presently 

being used in South Africa. 

• Information technologies elsewhere are 

vital to famine early warning systems, 

food security, humanitarian assistance, 

and monitoring epidemics; they may have 

wider application to conflict prevention in 

the sub-region. 

Conclusions 

• Given the social and economic 

stratification in DROC, those with time 

and money will learn the new IT, and 

enclaves of excellence are likely to 

appear. 

• IT can be used for good as well as for evil 

purposes. 

• Donors will play a big role in training. 

The British already train IT-related staff

for conflict and humanitarian purposes. 

Multilateral donor funding conditions will 

be instrumental in bringing about 

transparency applications using IT. 

• Countries in Central Africa are expected 

to progress in use of IT at different rates 

of speed. 

• By 2015, DROC and the rest of the subregion will not have caught up with West 

Africa in the use of IT, but the participants 

believed the sub-region will have closed 

the gap—and may quite possibly surpass 

West Africa in the use of cellular phones 

and radio. 

East Africa: Focus on Uganda 

The group in the breakout session decided 

that it was important to broaden its focus to 

look past the impact of information and 

communication technologies upon the 

economic development of East Africa. 

Discussion was broadened to examine the 

effect of IT upon the human development and 

quality of life of the region. This focus 

permitted a reflective and anecdotally 

enriched discussion, well grounded in the 

extensive field-based experience of the 

participants. The general theme of the 

discussion was the leveling effect of IT, 

permitting an easy horizontal sharing of

information with a minimum of gatekeepers. 

The group was told how IT has been a boon 

to African students seeking opportunities to 

study in the United States. In most cases the 

placement and scholarship application process 

has been the dominion of a few placement 

organizations such as the African American 

Institute, and many of their sources of

recruitment have been through networks often 

controlled by elites in established institutions. 

Now, potential applicants can access 

university information directly on the web. 

This web access has broadened the field by 

opening up opportunities for bright, lessconnected applicants. The direct 

communication that this now affords might 

obviate the need for intermediary 

organizations that control the limited number 

of scholarship opportunities. It may be 

preferable to allow universities possessing 

particular training sought by East Africans to 

manage these funds directly. 

The group discussed the importance of 

examining through a power lens many of the 

38 
39 
IT-supported initiatives in the field. Because 

Women-In-Development programs are able to 

lower their transaction costs in a variety of 

savings and credit schemes through the use of 

IT, a greater number of smaller loans have 

become available to a greater number of 

women. The horizontal communication that 

these technologies afford allows a freeflowing sharing of information, more 

participatory decisionmaking, greater 

networking, lessening the esoteric character 

of the available knowledge and building an 

important sense of group solidarity. 

The IT uses by Fulani herders offer an 

example of how IT has been adopted to 

support customary practices in 

unconventional ways. The herders use the 

global positioning system (GPS) mapping 

capability to map out their grazing lands and 

predict potential drought conditions. They 

also have developed e-mail lists to raise 

support for local projects and lobby through 

sympathetic patrons to bring pressure upon 

government policymakers. 

The Eritrean Diaspora has established many 

direct links with community-based 

organizations and community-based umbrella 

organizations working in regions of Eritrea 

that are often beyond the reach of the 

conventional projects and practices of 

development agents. Through planning and 

communication software developed in the 

United States, Eritreans have built a 

sophisticated planning and support delivery 

network, making it available to the most 

remote regions. In addition, the Diaspora has 

set up a website that provides otherwise 

inaccessible news and information that is 

often critical of the government. This has 

motivated the government to set up a counter 

website that directly responds to items

presented on the Diaspora site. 

Courts can also become more efficient by 

making information more accessible. IT can 

set the occasion for judicial reform as court 

records, data systems, judgments and cases 

are recorded in an accessible format. Such 

improvements would in turn lead to greater 

access, transparency, and efficiency of the 

system. In some cases hotlines have been 

established that have allowed for greater 

public accountability. Short of shutting down 

the Internet, there is no way of preventing the 

IT-supported transparency and information 

sharing that inevitably leads to good 

governance. 

The Somali Telecom Group is an example of 

the leapfrog technologies that are allowing 

well-trained Africans to return to Somalia and 

apply their state-of-the-art skills in their 

regions. The wireless information systems 

are growing at a rate that is exponentially 

more rapid than the conventional landline 

phone systems. How rapidly this will grow 

over the next five to ten years is related to the 

cost/minute of on-line time; the price must be 

brought down, and a demonstrated successful 

strategy for doing this is through competition. 

Tied to the pricing of communications is the 

pricing of electric power. Computers are 

driven by efficient delivery of electric power. 

Computer-based communications could be 

impeded if the power sources were not there 

to lend support. 

The case of Uganda is a good demonstration 

of the benefits of competition. The 

Government of Uganda has forced previously 

monopolistic communications companies to 

make the price competitive. The Ugandan 

Communications Commission (UCC) serves 

as a regulator that assures that all stakeholders 

will continue to remain involved. The 

regulatory commission continues to serve as a 

market-opening function. The Commission 

has managed to stay independent, and the 

highest level of leadership within the country 

40 
has assured its continued independence. The 

selection of the Director of the UCC has been 

key to assuring its independence. 

The question about human resources was 

raised. How will the burgeoning 

bureaucracies be treated when the ledger is 

replaced by the microchip? What will happen 

when the paper pushers lose their jobs? In 

response, the general consensus was that 

open, accessible information has tended to 

create new jobs. Employment is an 

intermediate measure in technological change. 

Even if some people lose their jobs, we can 

expect greater productivity that will then 

create new jobs. Participants believed that 

tying people into global market information 

systems (like the coffee producers) is an 

important way of impacting positively upon 

productivity. 

The matter of IT’s particular impact upon 

women was raised. Participants agreed that 

by looking at the impact of IT through the 

lens of gender, one might gain an 

understanding of its power and immediacy. 

Questions arose concerning the assessment of 

impact. How does IT affect the way women 

gain access to sources of power, information, 

and tangible resources? How will IT raise the 

status of women and/or levels of their 

income? Will there be new employment 

opportunities for women? Good social and 

economic analyses will offer insights into the 

potential changes promised by the 

introduction of these new technologies. IT 

has the potential to overcome many of the 

barriers to women—as well as to other groups 

who have been marginalized. Similarly, IT 

allows for more equitable access to 

knowledge and information through NGOs 

and networks. This is not to discount the 

continued problems of overcoming cultural, 

educational, and financial barriers: the group 

agreed that there will have to be proactive 

programs for involving women and lowincome people in training and access to 

information services in order to bring them

into the information revolution. 

The best way to make IT services accessible 

and sustainable is to figure out how to make 

them break even financially. Women, 

farmers, and micro-entrepreneurs need 

information that will improve the 

effectiveness of the services they require 

(such as health or education programs, 

financial services, market information, and 

comparative pricing). There is a market for 

information that is now only minimally 

tapped. For example, local community 

groups are setting up independent websites to 

push local tourism and local products. In fact, 

providing information, like building roads and 

providing schooling, may be one of those 

places where low-costing through subsidies 

from government may be effective in 

stimulating local economies. 

There was also a concern raised by the 

participants in the breakout session about the 

stifling of local content by the web. The 

general fear of globalization has its own 

particularities related to information sharing. 

How can local culture be protected from the 

European (or American) hegemonic content? 

The answer was that there has to be a 

conscious effort to support local content. IT 

could just as well encourage the propagation 

of local languages and culture as it could 

speed up their demise. It could increase 

ethnic identity as well as strengthen the hold 

of dominant cultures. Systems must be put in 

place that will protect local intellectual 

property in music, information, and culture of 

all kinds. The technological inputs needed for 

producing local content have become so 

readily available that it has become possible 

to produce locally generated material at a very 

low cost. 

41 
In many ways, IT has served as an analog for 

the building of democratic institutions. 

Participants noted that IT allows for free flow 

of information, leveling of the playing field, 

and transparency in governance. The biggest 

assistance to opening up of the information 

flow of the Internet is consumer pressure. It 

would be important for us to be able to gain a 

better understanding of the village-level 

awareness and use of IT. This kind of 

awareness will drive the content and rate of

expanding accessibility of the Internet. Who 

are the gatekeepers? How much is 

understood about the use of IT? How far 

down is its reach? What are the practices 

being constructed around IT? How does IT 

fit with conventional means of handling 

communication? What is IT’s impact upon 

literacy? How much support does it have? 

The African experience may be quite different 

from that of developed countries. For 

example, one case was described in Africa in 

which e-mail is handled as those in the United 

States might handle a telex or fax: one person 

sits at the computer and sends and receives 

messages for others. 

The Internet Exchange Point (IEP) in Kenya 

was discussed as an interesting case study, 

because of dramatic success in preventing its 

squelching by the government regulatory 

authority. The IEP had a strong enough 

constituency that supported it as it brought 

suit against the government’s action. This 

support allowed the IEP to win the case and 

continue and to serve a growing audience. 

Such initiatives that move control of

communication and information away from 

centralized authority could just as well lead to 

a backlash from those holding the reins of 

political power. 

Many believe that the emerging new 

information and communication technologies 

carry within them the capability to regulate 

themselves. On the other hand, others believe 

that we cannot depend upon self-regulation to 

be handled by market forces; the private 

sector would pick the easy fruits of this 

technological revolution and leave the 

governments to address many of the tougher 

social issues that are left hanging. 

Considerable weight must be given to these 

issues. It was the group consensus that the 

workshop was very effective in addressing 

many of these issues and this meeting should 

lead to further research and expansion of the 

policy discussions. 

West Africa: Focus on Nigeria 

The participants in this breakout session noted 

that it has only been two and a half years 

since Nigeria emerged from unprecedented 

military plundering and the ensuing 

destruction of institutions of governance. 

During the previous period the country 

suffered a vast exodus and export of talent, 

and corruption reached previously uncharted 

levels. These factors fed a social 

fragmentation, leading to increased internal 

violence. 

The participants agreed on the following main 

points: 

• The oil dividend had been very significant 

until recently; Obasanjo had a large 

dividend, but this was mostly squandered. 

• The renewed electoral cycle will lead to 

manipulation of the economy, etc., in 

preparation for the 2003 elections. 

• The US position vis-a-vis the bilateral 

relationship has changed drastically—first 

during the Abubakar era and into this 

government. The relationship became 

multi-faceted and high level, and remains 

a focus of the Bush Administration. 

42 
43 
• Post 11 September—with Sharia observed 

in northern Nigeria (where some

sentiment favors and links exist to alQa’ida)—there may be even greater 

attention on the US-Nigeria bilateral 

relationship. 

• Nigeria is playing an important role in the 

New African Initiative, and it has 

therefore become a symbol of Obasanjo's

ascendant diplomacy, though he has 

drawn some fire on this domestically. 

• 

 

Donor assistance has played an integral 

role helping restructure military and 

police, as well as in enabling electoral 

transitions, and will continue to be very 

important. 

Discussion 

• Nigeria is unique in the amount of 

decentralization to the states. Generally, a 

fair amount of decentralization has 

occurred, and there is now a certain 

amount of freedom at the state level in 

communications policy. 

• Lack of cohesion is not a recent 

development in Nigeria; one might 

suggest the need for a national or 

sovereign conference. 

• The US expects to receive 40 percent of 

its oil from Angola and Nigeria in the next 

few years—indeed, US oil imports from

Nigeria are expected to exceed imports 

from Saudi Arabia, and this situation 

creates a complex issue. The oil revenues 

in Nigeria feed the corruption. 

Meanwhile, most Nigerians have to queue 

up for petrol. 

In the IT sector the head of the Nigerian 

regulatory agency provides a good example of 

what a strong regulator can do. However, 

Nigeria is very far behind, with a very low 

teledensity and, generally, a poor situation. 

Nigeria did open up competition for mobile 

wireless, and awarded four licenses ($265 

million per license), of which two companies 

have begun operating. The growth rate looks 

very promising. 

Other points mentioned by the participants 

include: 

• NITEL7

 appears virtually worthless but 

had teamed up with Vodaphone for a 

wireless operation. 

• Nigeria may develop a wireless telecom

infrastructure. 

• The Internet has a fairly strong base in 

Nigeria, although there is a lack of good 

international connections. There is a 

fairly competitive ISP market. A 

bottoms-up approach is suited to Nigeria–

approaches requiring strong central 

planning will not work there. 

• Although 80 percent of the people live 

outside the cities, the reach of

telecommunications is limited to the 

major urban centers; most lines are in 

Lagos and those lines are often nonfunctional. In the rural areas, travel of 50 

km to a pay phone is average. 

• Nigeria should build IT infrastructure in a 

decentralized way; small local companies 

can bring IT to the rural areas. The 

Nigeria Telecom Regulator accepted this 

reality and wants to embark on an 

approach to stimulate such 

decentralization. This initiative would 

finance rural telephone connectivity 

through a private-sector fund to work 

directly with communities. Such an 

approach may, in fact, be needed, because 

7

 Nigeria’s government-owned telecommunications 

parastatal. 

44 
of community mistrust of federal or stategenerated initiatives. 

• Without connectivity, IT applications will 

not proliferate to rural areas. One would 

wish for a federal government initiative to 

improve rural connectivity. Deregulation 

with a development objective is needed 

(in contrast with what occurred in South 

Africa). 

• Some participants noted that the issue 

should not be developing the widest 

possible range of telephone connectivity; 

rather, emphasis should be on enhancing 

nodes of connectivity to disseminate 

information widely to the rural population 

through other means (radio, etc.). 

• The distinction should be made between 

“universal service” and “universal 

access.” If one can enable reasonable 

access, one can accomplish a great deal. 

• Communications facilities can be used to 

achieve other development objectives; one 

must consider the economic impact and 

possibilities of IT. One cannot have broad 

scale e-commerce, etc., until the basic 

structure is in place. The participants 

hoped that Nigeria—through policy—will 

seek to establish the conditions conducive 

to the rapid growth of the telecommunications infrastructure. (In South 

Africa growth was preordained in a 

central way—an approach that has been 

less than successful.) 

• Where is the initiative and leadership at 

this point? Push-pull—a fair number of 

Nigerians are starting to go back: perhaps 

most obviously, people have returned to 

launch enterprises like Internet cafes. 

• Problems include lack of bandwidth, 

speed, energy (power outages), and 

Nigerian organizations’ consequent need 

to buy other equipment to back up their 

work. 

• Complications also extend to intellectual 

property issues. Nigerians cannot buy 

software easily. Many are unable to use 

credit cards online. Internationally, there 

is a common assumption that if it's from

Nigeria it's a scam; there is a great deal of 

pirating. Cost and affordability on a 

sustained basis are of concern. 

Maintaining the IT infrastructure requires 

human resources; the training business is 

growing but is not yet at the level of 

troubleshooting. 

• State governments are coordinating with 

some Internet entrepreneurs; a potential 

problem is diversity among choices that 

states make versus the need for national 

compatibility. 

NITEL is not really a monopoly; and some

liberalization is occurring. Telecenters and 

VSAT lines are being initiated. There is no 

longer exclusivity with INTELSAT. Still, 

NITEL has a problem providing trunk 

capacity for traffic back into Nigeria: call 

handling ability is limited. It is very 

expensive to obtain a multi-operator VSAT 

license (over $100,000). Regulators have a 

limited ability to regulate. Although state 

governments are very supportive and proactive, they have not made any effort to 

regulate; as a result there is a potential for 

fraud. Sharia may affect freedom of the press 

in some of the Sharia states. 

It was suggested that Nigeria is working more 

effectively at the state level than at the 

national level. Why? One answer lies in 

Nigeria's history; Nigeria went into a civil war 

as a normal developing country and emerged 

oil-rich and under a military regime. 

Domination of the north is a factor. 

45 
Competition over resources leads to neglect 

of development priorities. States were created 

to promote local development and are now 

not just fighting for a piece of the central pot; 

this is a different approach. 

Another, more optimistic, dynamic was 

discussed, involving liberalization of media, 

return of many exiles to Nigerian cities, and a 

more "outward looking" Nigeria. 

To what country can Nigeria be compared? 

Indonesia? Ukraine and Colombia? Are 

these going through similar processes? 

Strong monopolies exist in Indonesia. 

Nigerian bureaucracy is easier to deal with 

than Indonesia’s bureaucracy. Brazil 

provides a historical comparison at best, as 

Brazil is now a very wired country. 

Nigeria faces a high deficit: it appears to be 

in the early stages of significant movement 

forward, but such development is in the early 

stages. It should be noted that the IT sector is 

making better progress than other sectors, 

perhaps because IT is led by the private 

sector. 

What will come with the next election? The 

result probably will be too much 

concentration on elections and not enough on 

long-term provision of services. 

An ethical and policy issue was discussed: 

The Internet is aimed at the elite, modeled 

more or less along the lines of its 

development in the United States: would a 

policy emphasis on the Internet irrevocably 

put us on the side of elite groups? In 

response, it was noted that we are not 

operating in a total vacuum; there is a national 

IT policy allocating two percent of core 

government budget to supporting incubation 

of IT in small to medium-sized enterprises 

(SMEs) and similar activities. The most 

recent Minister of Science and Technology 

came from the private sector, and wasn't very 

good at networking; President Obasanjo 

wanted to put the IT policy on hold, and the 

Minister resigned, shocking Obasanjo. 

The difficulty will be in the details. However, 

IT policy is not something that comes just 

from the Minister; it emerges from a larger 

stakeholder process. When the Minister 

resigned, the hue and cry helped to force a 

government reaction. 

Much of what we've seen has been the result 

of our engagement since the transition to 

Obasanjo. The development in Nigeria 

counts as one of the successes of our policies. 

What's the proof of our engagement? The 

measure of our impact? It is the willingness 

of leadership to take positions that they 

previously could not take. 

Some other points made include: 

• Cultural impediments exist, such as the 

reticence of family firms to open up; 

Nigerians often do not want to work 

outside groups with whom they are 

comfortable. 

• What about the production of data that 

happens in other countries—the service 

base—could it not happen in Nigeria? 

There is an educational base and human 

capital conducive to such development. 

• What are the prospects for regional 

cooperation? Nigeria will have to deal 

with the reality of a FrancophoneAnglophone split in West Africa. The 

Economic Community of West African 

States (ECOWAS) is clearly the group to 

work with. 

• Many West Africans are resentful of 

Nigeria's dominant role in the region. If 

work is conducted through ECOWAS, it 

46 
should involve committees with members 

from many countries. 

• What has been the impact of culture? 

Politics and religion can be a dividing 

issue when working in a multicultural 

system: this is much more of a problem in 

Nigeria today than it was a couple of 

years ago. Some cultures in Nigeria are 

more aggressive and oriented toward 

bargaining. 

What are the great unknowns facing Nigerian 

policy? 

• Will concentration on politics interfere 

with movement toward decentralization? 

• Will there be increased social conflict 

(inter-ethnic, religious, etc.)? 

• Can the Internet proceed, like the oil 

sector, in spite of the effects of violence? 

• What will be the course and effect of the 

push towards Sharia law? Toward control 

of information? 

• How will the level of violence affect 

government attitudes toward information 

and its regulation? 

• Will the government carry through with 

changes in telephony? 

• Will the government deal with energy 

issues? 

• Will the privatization of NITEL continue 

(a deeply controversial issue)? 

• Will there be over-regulation of new 

investments in wireless? 

• To what extent will the Internet and other 

forms of IT be diffused and used in 

schools? 

• What will be the progress in e-commerce? 

The following points were made about the 

general economic climate: 

• Its reputation for crime and corruption 

create a challenge for Nigeria’s 

development of e-commerce and indeed 

pose a huge barrier to legitimate business. 

Are Diaspora people using e-commerce 

applications in Nigeria? 

• The security burden on the economy 

discourages foreign investors. 

• The national IT policy will be helpful, if it 

makes it through the Senate. 

• Although one has to be concerned by the 

level of foreign investment coming in—

the private sector still supports the 

premise that there are reasons to invest—

one should not sell short the capacity of 

Nigeria to generate investment. 

Francophone vs. Anglophone: the Great 

Divide? 

ECOWAS and its secretariat have made 

significant progress so far, particularly on the 

gas pipeline in the energy sector. However, 

the pipeline would terminate in Ghana, 

involving four countries, which would require 

cooperation throughout the region. Also, it 

was not clear whether the pipeline would be 

on or offshore. This whole program is linked 

to power generation, and the program could 

allow Ghana to solve some of the severe 

power problems it has had. The president of 

Ghana seems determined to move on the 

energy front: he is a reformist, private sectororiented leader, like others that have come

recently to power in the region. The region 

has therefore tried to cooperate on economic 

development issues, particularly energy 

issues. 

47 
On the IT side, things are less clear, though 

the electricity generation issue has direct 

implications for IT. How important is 

electricity for IT development? Is there 

support for a broader regional integrated 

environment regarding financial flows, etc.? 

What is the likely impact of the CFA franc8

—

a common currency of the region? (Recent 

events indicate a drop in resources to 

developing countries, but the CFA will 

probably be less affected.) It was suggested 

that the common currency could have 

significant impact on e-commerce and the 

international transfer of funds. Transactions 

could be made across boundaries of the CFA 

countries without changing currency. 

Moreover, the CFA franc is linked to the 

French franc and therefore to the EU: to hard 

currency. But in Mali, for example, 

businesses have trouble converting to hard 

currency to buy IT equipment internationally. 

Perhaps what has happened in COMESA and 

SADC will happen in West Africa. The 

example of Senegal, which has made huge 

advances internally, may be constructive. 

Would Senegal be the driver of a regional 

effort? The leaders are in Ghana and Senegal 

and are in the front line of upgrading cables 

and such relating to IT. These countries will 

have all the coastal states linked by one cable, 

but it will be interesting to see which coastal 

countries have not yet bought into the project, 

not to mention the landlocked countries. 

What role would Nigeria play in this 

program? If Ghana and Senegal are the 

countries that will have the greatest coherence 

and motive for regional cooperation, people in 

Nigeria will be looking at the market benefits. 

The regional “hegemon” is the laggard in this 

case, unlike in Southern Africa where South 

Africa is the leader. 

 8

 CFA franc is a Francophone African currency which 

is convertible into French francs. 

There are all kinds of peacekeeping efforts 

that cut across the Francophone/Anglophone 

divide. But what about IT? There are people 

focusing on one or the other, but the 

Anglophone side is stronger because of the 

Nigerian market. The focus on the 

international side is Nigeria and Ghana and a 

little bit of Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Mali, 

Niger, and Chad have little to add in terms of

natural resources. An association of Telecom

operators exists in the region that cuts across 

Francophone and Anglophone countries. 

In Côte d’Ivoire, the Central Bank tends to 

have a regional program now, thinking about 

integration. Seven or eight countries are 

involved, most of which are Francophone. 

More Francophones speak English than the 

reverse, although there are quite a few 

Nigerians trying to speak French. There will 

probably be two strategies in West Africa: it 

is not so much the differences in language 

that causes the barrier, but the cultures behind 

them. The Anglophones are much more 

direct and entrepreneurial while the 

Francophones are slower, more theoretical, 

and more bureaucratic. France may not have 

as much interest as before—not much oil and 

other natural resources. Infrastructure in the 

Francophone countries is basically in French 

private hands, and major agribusiness tends to 

be Francophone. Mining is mainly 

Anglophone countries coming in. A system

of credit cards based on CFA is to be used in 

the region; Ghana, which is not using CFA, 

needs to be included and negotiations are 

underway on that issue. The CFA franc is 

widely accepted as a currency in the region. 

On the coastal states, there seems to be an 

acknowledgement of the need to be 

entrepreneurial and to do things more quickly. 

The Internet instills that culture. Is it 

possible, at least with respect to Senegal, and 

perhaps Côte d’Ivoire, that there might there 

be movement away from the stereotypical 

48 
approach? In Côte d’Ivoire, the government 

has the political will, and the private sector is 

actually doing much more to organize itself 

into IT networks—the private sector is ready 

for any incentive to make IT advances 

happen. At the policy level, however, the 

process is very slow. Things that were 

prepared under now deposed President Henri 

Konan Bedie haven fallen by the wayside; 

and the third government consisted of mainly 

university professors. So the private sector is 

moving a lot faster than the government. 

There is now a minister of ITC, but what does 

that mean in terms of concrete action? The 

private sector for the most part is composed 

of foreign corporations, though there are a fair 

number of Ivorians. Until now, most private 

companies have been 50 percent Frenchowned. 

In terms of education, more French software 

is needed for the Francophone countries. 

There is more content in English, so there 

now is a need for French-speaking people to 

learn English—and it is taught in elementary 

school. An American standard university will 

open in September 2002, and it will be 

bilingual, though classes will be in English. 

Discussion Highlights 

There are barrier issues in West Africa that 

only exist there. Among them: 

• ECOWAS is relatively weak, not very far 

along in picking up the IT issue and 

driving it. 

• There is a coastal (rich) versus landlocked 

(poor) gap. 

• Regional insecurity—there is a 

regionalized war and it is a special factor. 

It is intractable and resistant to 

peacekeeping. The war is a deterrent to 

investment since spending goes to training 

the military rather than into IT. 

• Nigeria, by far the largest country in the 

region, is a laggard in the IT revolution, 

and is not outward looking. 

• The Franco/Anglo divide. 

The Ghana and Senegal cases may be 

considered: two democratically governed, 

market-oriented economies getting savvy on 

IT issues, where the situation is characterized 

by dynamism. Côte d’Ivoire has had periods 

of dynamism and leadership. There is the 

potentially large size of the Nigerian 

market—but how do you get to it? Nigeria 

has oil and could be producing large amounts, 

generating a considerable income. There is a 

de facto coastal linkage in the region 

alreadysteps are being taken to establish a 

network (cable), which is laying the 

groundwork for further steps. ECOWAS is 

acutely keyed to energy problems. 

What about mass media? Deregulation of 

radio has occurred in Mali but is uncommon 

in the rest of West Africa. Dramatic 

resurgence of independent media has occurred 

in all the environments that have been 

liberalized, certainly in Ghana and Senegal. 

In Côte d’Ivoire, people use cassette videos. 

One political party has used this for 

propaganda, spreading to the rural areas. The 

use of the technology has increased the social 

fracture between north and south; mass media 

in certain circumstances can be detrimental, 

and this is true of IT in general. So, while IT 

can promote growth and jobs, etc., it can be 

used for nefarious purposes as well. Misuse 

of technology clearly is a very serious issue 

with the Internet. The Economist has had 

articles about the geography of the Internet—

geography may be a lot more important than 

people realize. Thus, the debate over whether 

or not to regulate the Internet is serious, and 

the decision may have serious consequences. 

Another issue is costing, as when people use 

the Internet to get less expensive 

49 
communications. The need in West Africa is 

so great that we tend to turn a blind eye to the 

dangerous consequences to the spread of IT. 

This region has potential for actual conflict; 

the role of IT in adding fuel to the fire should 

not be ignored. 

What will the IT revolution do in terms of

trade? The production of IT-intensive 

products (such as jet aircraft, new 

pharmaceutical products and international 

banking services) is increasingly dominated 

by rich countries. The technological and 

entrepreneurial skills to produce such goods 

and services tend to be very localized in 

developed countries; African countries are 

often limited to roles as suppliers of primary 

goods. The Internet expands the market for 

such goods and more developing countries 

compete for the same export markets. Who is 

going to have more power in international 

markets for such primary goods, the 

consumers or the suppliers? The developed 

country purchasers of primary products will 

perhaps use their technological power to 

better exploit the market, while the increased 

competition among developing country 

suppliers may help to drive prices down. It 

could happen that the price of knowledgeintensive goods will go up while that of the 

primary products produced in Africa goes 

down; the economic implications of such 

trends for West Africa are very much of 

concern. IT is also being used to promote 

tourism, for example, which is revenueproducing. 

The Japanese and Italians have used the 

Internet to go for the best price they can get 

for the product. The missing word is 

competitiveness, and the Internet is definitely 

driving competition. Any buyer can seek the 

best prices (which also will include transport). 

IT can open up new markets, but if you have a 

bottleneck, you can’t get goods in and out of 

ports in time and you can’t get from an airport 

to a place to do business, buyers will go 

elsewhere. IT is exacerbating the need to be 

competitive in Africa.

50 
Panel V: Implications for 

Policymakers 

Recognizing the importance of politics and 

policy in the implementation of IT, this 

session addressed those key issues that will 

profoundly impact the whole process of 

diffusing the technology itself. The presenters 

not only referenced those areas affecting the 

US Government and private sector but also 

African leaders and nonstate actors. 

Key Issues for African Policymakers 

In considering implications for policymakers, 

one should recognize that, in Africa, 

governments are fairly peripheral with regard 

to population. Indeed, the role of government 

may be negative, keeping competition down 

and prices high. 

Technology is perhaps not the problem. Lack 

of meritocracy, lack of security, and strife are 

often more important. The electrical 

infrastructure is poor; transportation 

infrastructure is also inadequate, not only in 

terms of roads, but also airports and air travel. 

Populations are fragmented ethnically, 

linguistically, and economically. 

One priority is to improve awareness. 

Provide heads of state and leaders at all levels 

with a satellite dish and a link to the Internet. 

The areas of agriculture and natural resource 

management are critically important but do 

not receive much support from donors. There 

is too much inefficient use of existing 

capacity, which suggests a need to increase 

awareness of good practice. 

Regulators need to do a lot of work. The 

educational system, from primary schools on 

up, needs to strengthen efforts all the way 

from computer literacy training to the conduct 

of research and experimental development. 

The African IT Educational Trust, headed by 

Graça Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, 

has a program for incubation facilities that 

might be emulated. 

Models of deregulation should be improved. 

The rural telecom experience appears to have 

been unprofitable and should be questioned. 

South Africa’s model for rural connectivity 

seems not to have been good and should not 

be replicated. 

It sometimes appears that there exists an 

inverse relationship in Africa between the 

strength of economy and progressiveness of 

IT policies. As they privatize public telecom

operations, governments often look to the 

transaction as a revenue source, and in 

consequence appear to be negotiating longterm contracts, which will be counterproductive in the long run. These 

governments would be well advised to seek 

more taxes over the long run from an 

improved economy rather than an immediate 

fee for license. 

There are a number of interesting specific 

technological opportunities. One is hybrid 

technology to get Internet connectivity to 

people with TVs. A national Internet calling 

number has already been initiated in many 

countries but should be available everywhere 

in Africa. 

The cost of local calls remains too high in 

much of Africa. Further deregulation is 

needed, even if only for data purposes—data 

nets don’t threaten voice service providers. 

License fees are often too high: in Zambia 

the ISP fee is $40,000. VSAT licenses are 

also usually priced far too high, as are mobile 

and other telecom licenses. Moreover, the 

licensing process is usually too slow. Import 

duties are imposed for some equipment for 

which tax-free importation would be more 

conducive to development. There is also a 

need for provision of access to broadcasting 

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licenses, especially licenses for community 

broadcasting. 

Donors seem to have focused attention on 

South Africa, but they should also look at 

advanced countries in North Africa, such as 

Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. Further, local 

applications, such as those in government, 

deserve more support. Replication of studies 

should be reduced and funds allocated for 

action and implementation instead. Finally, 

donors should heed lessons learned. 

A West African Perspective 

The world probably is a long way from a 

situation in which we can fully assess the 

impacts of IT. Still, it is necessary to develop 

national policies, with the participation of all 

stakeholders, to promote equal access. Local 

content and content in local languages should 

be a priority for donor agencies, as should be 

databases on all aspects of society and 

development. Training on IT should be 

emphasized in all aspects of national 

curricula. Centers of Excellence for 

manpower development are needed 

everywhere; development of human resources 

should be included in all plans for IT 

development. The needs of the 

disenfranchised should be met: programs 

should be gender-sensitive, appropriate to 

Africa’s multilingual and multicultural 

environment, and include rural areas. 

Networks must be responsive to people’s 

needs. Flexible pricing of telecommunications and Internet services is needed to 

stimulate demand in rural and poor locales. 

Scientific and technological knowledge must 

be emphasized. More importantly however, 

the key to successful IT development will be 

national strategies that involve all sectors in 

the use of IT, and avoid risk of social 

exclusion. 

Focusing on Regulatory Agencies 

Determining which direction to take in 

helping countries to improve IT connectivity 

depends on whether the government in the 

country owns and operates the telecommunications businesses, or whether the 

industry is private and simply regulated by the 

government; that is, whether or not the 

government is itself an enterprise in the 

telecommunications business. 

Governments That Are Not in the IT 

Business 

Countries that are clearly privatizing their 

state IT companies and have set up truly 

independent regulators deserve all the positive 

assistance that can be offered. 

• Strengthening regulators is the real key to 

success in IT development. Regulators, 

by definition, always have to consider the 

public interest. Regulators should be 

independent; the South African 

experience conclusively demonstrated the 

problem that arises when the privatizing 

state has difficulty relinquishing control of 

the regulation process. It needs to be 

recalled that the state was the previous 

regulator in countries just now 

establishing independent regulators. 

• Other opportunities are in basic education 

for such disciplines as law (regulations are 

secondary legislation) and spectrum

engineering. 

• Opportunities can be offered during the 

national privatization process. For 

example, US Trade and Development 

Agency technical assistance funding 

coupled with US Telecommunications 

Training Institute training can be provided 

to a US company that succeeds in buying 

into the entity being privatized. Note that 

the privatizing government should have 

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no say in the operation of the technical 

assistance once it is in place. 

• Success in the competitive US 

environment should translate into success 

in competition in foreign countries. Such 

companies can therefore provide excellent 

examples of the value of competition to 

economic development. 

• A new US investor often finds himself or 

herself in a monopoly situation. It seems 

to be important that US policy should 

recognize that in such cases the new 

investor should be encouraged to 

appreciate the pro-competitive stance of

the United States and should be 

encouraged to not become completely 

enamored with the monopoly situation in 

which it finds itself. 

Governments That Are in the IT Business 

In African countries, the lack of information 

technology infrastructure is by and large due 

to the fact that governments themselves are 

charged with responsibility for delivering dial 

tone. In this they have generally failed. 

• The government telecommunications 

enterprises rely instead on making money 

by low volumes and high prices: this 

policy has been a recipe for disaster. The 

following policy recommendations are 

intended to help Africa rid itself of the 

idea of government being in the business 

of making money instead of the business 

of governance. 

• Foreign investors should not give more 

favorable conditions to governmentowned enterprises than to private 

enterprises. 

• The policy, perhaps at the highest level, 

should make a clear distinction between 

entities in Africa that are owned by the 

private sector and those in the majority 

owned by governments. The entities 

owned by a government are clearly 

instruments of the specific African 

government, and, as such, their dealings in 

the US and other foreign governments 

should go through the proper government 

channels. It is not enough for them to 

register with the FCC and then go about 

their business as if they are not 

instruments of a foreign state. 

• The sanctions provisions of the World 

Trade Organization (WTO) should be 

applied to the fullest extent with respect to 

state-owned companies where the latter 

digress from their owning government’s 

WTO commitments. 

• Telecommunications policies of foreign 

governments should appear to encourage 

the growth of private sector companies in 

African countries. It should be stressed to 

African governments, those that do own 

and operate information technology 

businesses, that the foreign government 

investment policy is to encourage private 

sector growth. 

Implications for US Foreign Policy 

Africa is not—especially after 

11 September—at the top of the US policy 

agenda. The case must be made that key US 

policy goals—security, economic, political—

can be attained in Africa. In particular, the 

case must be made that US policy objectives 

can be achieved through IT and information 

resource programs. Keys to making this case 

will be: 

• Focusing policymakers’ attention not only 

on the degree of threat to US interests, but 

also on the opportunities to enhance those 

interests. 

53 
• Showing how IT/IR relate to security, 

economic, democracy, and development 

goals. 

• Devising IT/IR strategies that are 

relatively low cost/high return and which 

use entry points and leverage to attain 

several US objectives at once: for 

example, airport security and support for 

regional organizations. 

Some specific comments can be made about 

US policy relevant to IT in Africa. The 

United States can achieve several objectives 

in the region through support for IT efforts of 

regional and continental organizations. Thus, 

ECOWAS plays a key role in regional 

security in West Africa (military, drugs, 

terrorism), as well as in economic integration, 

democracy, and development; supporting the 

region’s IT programs helps to achieve these 

various objectives. There is also now an 

opportunity to help shape a new African 

Union. 

Security controls have become especially 

significant in the aftermath of 11 September. 

IT can play a role in improving airport 

security. Indeed, the security of the 

information infrastructure itself is a key issue 

in Africa, as elsewhere. 

Economic reforms are critical to US policy in 

Africa. Such reforms are supported by 

Internet applications for financial and other 

control; indeed, such applications might be 

required in IMF and International Bank for 

Reconstruction and Development programs. 

The Leland II program is likely to be 

especially useful in promoting reforms, since 

it focuses on strengthening regulators. 

As the United States seeks to promote 

democracy in Africa, there is an important 

role for IT. Certainly appropriate information 

technology can help make elections more 

efficient and transparent and improve the 

speed with which election results are 

published. IT applications in education can 

improve voter understanding, as can the use 

of IT to post and disseminate content on 

election issues. 

In the area of economic development, the 

leapfrog to wireless communications has 

helped to overcome the barriers created by the 

weak wire-based telecommunications 

infrastructure. IT is proving invaluable in the 

efforts to reduce the spread of AIDS, to 

improve agriculture, and to improve 

productivity in other sectors. Content 

relevant to African needs and demands is the 

key limitation to achieving such development 

benefits. 

In short, IT is important to both politics and 

policy. In Africa, IT can change and 

determine the four “Cs” that have been 

discussed: Control, Culture, Competence, and 

Capital. Nigerian decentralization provides a 

good example of a situation in which 

assistance in IT provides a low-cost, highly 

leveraged approach to simultaneously 

achieving several purposes of the United 

States. Similarly, the Leland II program of 

USAID provides a low-cost approach to 

building capacity important to many US 

objectives in Africa. Our objectives would 

also be well served were the developed world 

to: 

• Provide support for the Association of 

Telecommunications Regulators. 

• Work to assure African ownership of the 

development content placed on the 

Internet. 

• Recognize and support African 

universities as sustainable delivery 

mechanisms for IT development. 

54 
The bottom line is to “get the process right,” 

even if, as sometimes happens in Africa, 

projects and programs must be aborted. If the 

process is right, the stakeholders will remain 

and ultimately will be able make IT initiatives 

work. 

The biggest change in Africa is the coming of 

age, to both influence and power, of a new, 

globally-oriented generation. This generation 

includes the natural allies of the United 

States, our natural economic and political 

partners. IT is the ideal vector to support and 

empower these future leaders. 

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