The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN body, Dr Hamadoun Toure, said ensuring adequate protection for the Eastern African Sub-Marine Cable System (EASSY), aimed at linking Africa, was key to its success.
He said the cable should also be provided with adequate security to protect it from both man-made and natural disaster risks while countries ensured their legislations were harmonized to avoid misunderstanding over the ownership of the entire process.
Speaking after presiding over the ground-breaking ceremony for Kenya's own national fibre optic cable meant to link the East African state to the United Arabs Emirates (UAE), Dr Toure said Africa was capable of enjoying the benefits of information technologies.
"We are in a world where everything has gone electronic. We need to have electronic health, electronic education (e-education) and e-commerce. We need to connect ourselves," he emphasized.
Kenya has put in motion plans to construct its own overland cable to link the country with a separate undersea cable in the UAE. The Kenyan fibre optic cable is expected to cost US$100 million.
Toure hailed African countries for moving on with the implementation of "ambitious" but achievable interconnection initiatives such as the fibre optic cable. The national fibre optic cable covers 5,000 km across Kenya.
He said the laying of such cables would eventually lead to internet connections for Africans with broadband infrastructure.
African leaders meeting in Kigali, Rwanda early this week to discuss "Connect Africa Initiatives" agreed to expand access to telecommunication infrastructure across the continent by 2012 to bolster the achievement of UN poverty reduction costs.
"We have pledged to have e-health, e-education, and e-commerce. All these need to be in place by 2012. Such national fibre optic cables would have positive pan African connections," Toure, who convened the Kigali Summit said.
During the Summit, African Union Commission Chairman, Prof. Alpha Konare blamed African telecommunication regulators of slowing the continent's match towards cheaper and more affordable access to telecommunication.
Konare said harmonization of the regulatory framework was the best way to achieve faster connectivity for the African continent.
He said connectivity was important as a tool against poverty but warned that if not taken care of, it could become a "tool of destruction by negative forces."
Toure called for disaster preparedness among the various African states working on the EASSY project to reduce the risk of its destruction from oceanic storms.
Quelle/Source: Afrique en ligne, 01.11.2007
