IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

While the Indian project, dubbed e-Network, is equipped to support tele-education, e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment and resource mapping, the Japanese project is focused on tele-education and e-governance.

Today Francis is a marketing manager in a leading corporate firm in Kenya. The turnaround happened when Francis decided to pursue his bachelor's degree from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), said to be the world's largest university.

The report, eTransform Africa: The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa, provides new data on the technological revolution that is taking place in Africa and its transformational impact on the continent’s development. As the World Bank Group reported, at the start of 2012, there were some 650 million mobile subscriptions, making the African mobile telephony market bigger than either the EU or the United States. Some 68,000 km of submarine cable and over 615,000 km of national backbone networks have been laid, greatly increasing connectivity across Africa. The Internet bandwidth available to Africa’s one billion citizens has grown 20-fold since 2008.

Today, this type of deliberation and election of leaders be it at the village or national level cannot be practiced.

Kunbi Oguneye, chief executive of Nigerian Internet solutions provider Suburban Telecom, spoke to Sowetan at the Infrastructure Projects Summit organised by African investor at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.

The summit aimed to create a platform which would enable project sponsors and promoters to engage with infrastructure investors and development institutions.

Several African governments have tried to curb internet availability for political reasons.

When the undersea fiber optic cables landed on Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa in June 2009 from the United Arab Emirates, John Thuo, 35, never imagined it meant doom to his cybercafé business.

Thuo, a computer science graduate from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, operated an internet café at an apartment on Jogoo Road on the outskirts of Nairobi.

The Internet Society will call for the adoption of policies and frameworks that expand access and create greater demand for the Internet during the 4th annual Africa Internet Summit (AIS) now underway in Gaborone, Botswana.

Urging policymakers to grasp the opportunity offered by the expansion and growth of the Internet across the continent, the Internet Society will advocate for greater collaboration by all Internet decision-makers in creating an accessible, trusted Internet that benefits all Africans.

A few years ago, I was in Lagos to see Alphabet’s digital skills programs at work. There was excitement for the future of technology in Africa and all the jobs and opportunities it could bring. From jobseekers learning new skills to entrepreneurs building promising new apps and businesses, the people I met were deeply inspiring.

These people were on my mind again when I addressed regional leaders at the African Union’s annual Business Forum this week.

Africa faces many challenges on its path to becoming a global economic competitor. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Africa's development can either be a massive barrier to advancement - or, the spark that lights the fire of innovation and investment across the continent.

There’s no denying that for most of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed digital adoption forward in vast leaps in a very short space of time. What the pandemic has also made apparent is the disparities of infrastructure across Africa, as well as gaps in adoption and policy.

Clive Shepherd, an expert in human resource development, says the ICT sector in Africa is in a unique position. “The biggest obstacle,” he says, “is no longer technology, but the willingness to take advantage of new pportunities and technologies. And it’s a very exciting position to be in.”

The African eHealth Economics Forum, Cape Town, which forms part of The Global Health Economics Series, was held recently at the One & Only Hotel. The forum focused on three major elements of eHealth projects; assessment of eHealth projects, financial aspects of project implementation and economics of mobile health.

One of the biggest challenges of eHealth project implementation is the complexity of tracking success of pilot projects and presenting benefits to key stakeholders and key healthcare providers. Healthcare delivery is a complex process and eHealth interventions have been cited to have been lost in this complexity.

Many African countries have made significant progress toward creating an Internet sector, with broad sector reforms and focus on increasing broadband availability. However, there is still much work to be done to strengthen the Internet sector and to create an Internet economy in Africa.

This is according to a report by Internet Society titled “Promoting the African Internet Economy” which looks at Internet adoption and usage by companies and governments throughout Africa.

Increasing broadband services should improve Africa's telecom sector as more African countries move to implement e-governance, e-learning and e-health programs, which have been hindered by the region's insufficient broadband infrastructure and capacity.

Africa’s progress and economic growth is being realised in part due to the role that information and communication technologies are playing, President Paul Kagame said.

He was addressing participants attending the Viva Technology Conference, known as “VivaTech” in Paris, France.

Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC) is finalizing the shipment of new construction equipment for new smart cities in Congo, Botswana and Sierra Leone that will begin in January 2024.

The construction will follow MMTC's inaugural Marathon scheduled to take place on December 16th, 2023, at MMTC in Butere Sub County Kakamega County.

Financing for climate-resilient infrastructure and smart city development will be a key focus when Nairobi hosts the second Africa Urban Forum next month.

The three-day forum, scheduled for April 8–10, will bring together policymakers, development financiers, city leaders and private sector players to discuss investment models needed to support Africa’s rapidly expanding urban centres.

The city's architectural design integrates solar power, rainwater collection and utilisation into its infrastructure.

Africa is increasingly positioning itself as an attractive investment destination in the global tech landscape.

With a population of over one billion and a substantial talent pool, the continent represents a significant financial opportunity for investors.