JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Africa was in danger of failing to provide basic telecommunications services by the beginning of the millennium if it did not receive the help of foreign investors and partnerships.
Speaking at the opening of the Africa Telecom 98 held in May in Johannesburg, President Nelson Mandela said, “We have to overcome the most pressing challenges facing Africa in this sector, namely limited financing for investment in infrastructure.”
About US$20 billion will be required to address the telecommunications needs of Africa during the next five years, estimates the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the conference organizer.
“Africa remains a huge untapped market for telecommunications and information technologies,” said Mandela. “Like other emerging markets, it presents huge opportunities for investors.” To promote this need, he suggested a dedicated African Telecommunications Development Fund should be established. This would finance the infrastructure projects needed to “extend telephony to every village in Africa,” he said.
Telecommunications in Africa suffers from the lack of critical resources such as capital, expertise and technology. Furthermore, the African continent is still suffering an imbalance in terms of its regulatory framework, and political and economic development.
The opening of the conference, hosted by South Africa, was attended by ministers and dignitaries from all over Africa, including the presidents of Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal and Zimbabwe. This milestone for the African continent was in response to Mandela’s request in 1995 that the conference should be held on his home turf.
ITU Secretary General Dr. Pekka Tarjanne said at the official opening that his organization already has taken the first step in fulfilling Mandela’s vision for a “communication-based renaissance for Africa” and will be spending 8 million Swiss francs (US$5.36 million) to establish a series of training centers in the developing world. The first two of these will be located in Africa, one in Dakar, Senegal, and the other in Nairobi, Kenya.
Tarjanne added, “The time has come for Africa to forge its own destiny. It is the African people who will ultimately determine the shape of the new Africa, and it is the job of government to provide them with the liberty to do so.”
The mammoth challenge for Africa is just how far it will be able to tap into the continent’s potential markets for improving telecommunications in Africa. African countries believe they can do it.
