The government of Alassane Ouattara, whose priority is to build a digital economy, plans to develop and restructure the ICT sector, which appears to have seriously suffered from years of political squabbles, war, underinvestment and dubious policies.
The ICT sector contributes between 6 and 7% to the country’s GDP, just behind the coffee-cocoa twins.
The government, which said it was satisfied by the progress made so far in the ICT sector, has invited the secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in October 2013 to ‘see for himself’ what the country has achieved in this area.
But critics say the government needs to do more to take ICTs to the next level, and benchmark its achievements with other countries of the region such as Nigeria and Ghana, which they say are far better than Ivory Coast.
Minister of Posts and ICTs Bruno Koné has perhaps heeded this criticism, and has listed the following plans to develop this sector:
Regarding the broadband internet, Koné is self-satisfied that its price has come down to about 40% thanks to what he called the ‘successful’ introduction of 3G.
Ivory Coast is seriously lagging behind in terms of the 4G technology but the minister said the successful introduction of 3G will soon lead to 4G.
Ivory Coast is being currently served by three international cables, which the minister said have helped increase the country’s internet access and capacity.
ICT teacher Alfred Camara agrees, saying that the country’s internet connection is now much better compared to the previous years.
The other critical aspect critics say Ivory Coast needs to deal with urgently is e-commerce, which like in many countries in West Africa, is almost non-existent.
But the government said new policies and mechanisms are being put in place to deal with the issues of e-commerce and the protection of private information, and cyber-crime.
“I’m not sure if our government has the legal capacity to deal with the protection of private information and cyber-crime,” Giselle Kouassi said, adding that Ivory Coast was completely at the swamped by fraudsters and cyber-criminals.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Issa Sikiti da Silva
Quelle/Source: BiztechAfrica, 02.09.2013
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