IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

While infrastructure in the equatorial region is underdeveloped, it does have a key advantage: plentiful, reliable sunlight. Mobile solar classrooms, an ever more common sight trundling along the potholed roads of rural Africa, show that the creative use of an abundant resource can overcome disadvantages.

Following from the release of the South African matriculation (matric) examination results yesterday, the organisers of the event said the current quality of education is questionable, and both teaching and learning methods need to be reassessed.

Leaders in ICT development in Africa today joined some 130 stakeholders in Maputo at the 4th annual e-Governance Africa Forum organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) in collaboration with Mozambique’s Ministry of Science and Technology, to propose solutions to the numerous challenges facing African governments in their efforts to develop and deploy information and communications technologies to improve government service delivery, build capacity and skill sets, and ensure citizen empowerment.

This came out of the ongoing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Africa conference in Harare this week.

African countries have seen decades of imposed structural adjustment policies that have failed to raise industrialisation levels on the continent.

"The drive towards Africa's very own Top Level Domain (TLD) continues to gather momentum and we need the support of all African governments and the broader community as that momentum gathers further steam," said Koffi Fabrice Djossou, who presented the ZACR's case for dotAfrica at the Summit.

The Vice President made the call at the opening of a two-day United Nations (UN) Africa Regional Ministerial meeting on e-Health, in Accra on Tuesday.

With a first close of $145 million, it is one of the largest African based infrastructure funds, notwithstanding its single sector focus.

CPCIF, which has a targeted final close of $250 million, aims to invest in communications infrastructure and related services and technologies across sub-Saharan Africa. It expects to generate significant returns for investors, while also enabling ICT- driven socio-economic development.

The 2012 Telecommunications Survey, carried out by global Amrop executive search group member, Landelahni Business Leaders, highlights the skills gaps in the African ICT sector.

Estonia is clearly punching above its weight when it comes to e-services, African ICT leaders attending the Tallinn e-Governance Conference 2017 told daily Postimees.

One of the conference's highest-ranking guests was African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, effectively the counterpart of European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Andrus Ansip, Postimees wrote.

Eight African countries have begun setting up Internet exchange points as part of an ambitious project by the Internet Society and the African Union Commission, aimed at improving interconnectivity between countries and reducing connectivity costs.

The 5th annual e-Governance Africa Forum, attended by some 150 delegates from twenty countries spread across the world, especially Africa, ended today in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with both public and private sector stakeholders resolving to intensify all efforts to improve governance and service delivery through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), and hosted by the Government of Cameroon through its Ministry of Posts and Telecoms and the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB), the conference was under the theme “Governance, Service Delivery and Democracy through the use of ICTs”.

The African leaders gathered in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, yesterday (29 October) at the 'Connect Africa Summit' — convened by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — to discuss ways of ensuring better access to ICT.

This year’s Pan African Digital Initiative Summit & Expo, themed ‘Infrastructure Protection, Cybersecurity, and Connectivity as Growth Drivers in the Digital Age, has in attendance the influential players in the African information and communications technology (ICT) markets as speakers.

The event was organised by TechTv in partnership with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Association of Licenses Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, Zoho Technologies, and others to explore how the widespread deployment of digital technology infrastructure is both creating opportunities for socio-economic development and causing the rise of attacks, both physical and cyber. The consensus among experts is that digital transformation, combined with a rapid explosion of technologies, has paved the way for greater vulnerabilities and newer forms of threat to enterprises.

The information society which encompasses information and communication technologies, including Internet, medias, broadcasting and postal services, represents one the most vibrant social and economic activities of this century”.

It is against this backdrop among others that, African Ministers of Communication and Information Technologies gathering today 3rd September 2015 in Addis Ababa in their first ordinary session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT (STC-1 CICT) will discuss the significant strides and innovation in societal transformations in the last decade.

A critical mass of countries are signing on to a plan for India to invest 1bn in the Pan-African e-Network satellite project, a joint initiative with the Africa Union aimed at developing the region’s ICT infrastructure.

The African Union last year entered into an agreement that calls for the Indian government to supply funds for the project. The Indian government will finance the project over a period of five years through a grant to the African Union. Ethiopia for example, has been given a grant of2,13m from India for the project.

The African Union last year entered into an agreement that calls for the Indian government to supply funds for the project. The Indian government will finance the project over a period of five years through a grant to the African Union. Ethiopia for example, has been given a grant of US$2.13 million from India for the project.

Most African countries have embraced technology in education, according to the eLearning Africa 2012 report, the first significant attempt to provide a snapshot of how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and better connectivity are believed to be changing the face of education in Africa.

The report by eLearning Africa, an organization based in Germany, is based on a detailed survey of almost 450 education professionals across the continent. The report, launched by Benin Minister of Communication and Information and Communication Technology Max Ahouéké in Cotonou, Benin, last week at the eLearning Africa conference, shows that 71 percent of those surveyed are now using ICT enhanced learning in their classrooms and 48 percent use mobile phones for education.

“Such developments have not helped Africa to come to the forefront of e-government development,” said Richard Kerby, Inter-regional adviser on e-government for the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM).

"The Africans are using their mobile phones in a very entrepreneurial way, because it's their lifeline, and small businesses depend on them," said Pertti Johansson, president Middle East and Africa region at Qualcomm.

The first service Johansson mentioned is mobile payments and transfers. M-PESA ("M" for "mobile" and "PESA," the Swahili word for "money") in Kenya is the most famous such system in Africa, with about 2 million users a year after its launch.