AFRICA: Plugging the technology gap with help from India
DAR-ES-SALAAM, 14 May 2010 (IRIN): Investment in information technology can help Africa to improve governance, overcome poverty and deal with critical infrastructure gaps, taking India as an example, the co-chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2010 (WEF) said.
– There is no need to reinvent the wheel, Ajai Chowdhry, also chairman and chief executive officer of HCL Infosystems in India, told IRIN on the sidelines of a recent WEF conference in Tanzania:
– India and Africa have similar problems so we can apply similar solutions. It is all been tried and tested in India, and the software is readily available to transfer knowledge and experience, noted he.
While mobile pho-ne usage in Africa has ballooned – by almost 550 percent between 2003 and 2008, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Deve-lopment (UNC-TAD) – and Kenya, for example, has led the way with the M-Pesa payment system and Ushahidi information-sharing platform, the continent has been lagging behind other developing regions in internet use and broadband connectivity, according to UNCTAD.
Financing fast broadband networks will require cooperation between national governments, donors and the private sector.
One example is Rwanda, which is working with donors, UN bodies and private companies to realize its “Vision 2020” with ICT (IT) at its heart.
Ten years ago, only one school had a computer; by 2006 more than half of primary and secondary schools were equipped with computers, and over 2.000 teachers had been trained in ICT, according to a World Bank report.
Enabling computer use, especially in far-flung areas, requires creative financing, says Chowdhry; the government of India provided a subsidy of 100 US dollar per computer from donor funding, thereby “taking computers to the village”.
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