Affordable access to ICT cornerstone to country’s development, VP says

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
VICE-President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said affordable access to Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is the cornerstone of the country’s growth as it enhances citizen participation and government accountability. In his address while officially opening the 13th edition of the three-day Innovation Africa Summit in Victoria Falls, VP Mnangagwa said there was a need to craft regulatory frameworks that would enable new players in the ICT.

VP Mnangagwa said plans were underway for the government to set up an ICT Techno Park to be the largest technology park in the country.

“I’m informed that this IAD Summit is meant to support the sustainable growth of Africa’s ICT sector and that it provides a valuable opportunity for the host government to demonstrate a commitment within the country to support the growth of the ICT sector and attract inward investment,” said VP Mnangagwa.

“Lack of affordable access to ICTs hampers economic and social progress as the Web is becoming increasingly important in the developing world as a tool to set up businesses, drive improvements in health care, education, agriculture and increase government accountability to citizens. It’s clear that affordable access also promotes active citizenship, public participation in democratic processes, increased awareness of the rights of the citizens and access to government information and services.”

The VP, who is credited with establishing Constituency Information Centres countrywide during his tenure as the Speaker of Parliament, said the government had come up with a concept of Community Information Centre (CIC) projects in rural communities so as to enable everyone access information at one stop ICT access points.

VP Mnangagwa urged African governments to ensure that there is affordable access to fast broadband as internet should be considered a basic human right.

“Rather than direct intervention, governments should focus on the key enablers of ICT innovation, developing a skilled workforce, implementing ICT innovation policies, promoting ICT entrepreneurship, and facilitating a bottom-up approach to innovation. I believe this is part of what this gathering is meant to achieve and that though the focus is on Africa, the whole world will either directly or indirectly benefit,” he said.

VP Mnangagwa said there was a need for proper regulatory guidance to guard against potential investors and innovators being discouraged from entering the market.

He said competition alone or the introduction of a particular number of players in a market is not a sufficient condition to ensure affordable access to ICT services.

“Well-rounded policies and regulations that stimulate both supply and demand for broadband are a must. New types of policy and regulatory frameworks are necessary to make ICT services available to most citizens at affordable prices,” he said.

Cde Mnangagwa said addressing the digital divide will also be driven mainly by sound policies and up-to-date regulatory frameworks which include support for reforms in radio frequency spectrum management and infrastructure sharing among telecommunication operators.

The VP called for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that are based on an open access framework to accelerate mobile broadband infrastructure development.

He drew laughter from the fully packed conference room when he said the world was divided into two – the digital aliens and the digital natives. The aliens being those either born before technology or are foreigners to the world of ICTs and the digital natives being the techno-savvy, himself being in the digital aliens group.

He said the government’s vision was to have a knowledge based society with ubiquitous connectivity by 2020 and was linking all towns with fibre optic ICT backbone, while also embarking on a computerisation programme in schools with more than 1,000 schools having been computerised to date.

This would employ hundreds of professionals and would involve domestic firms, joint ventures and subsidiaries of foreign companies engaged in a wide variety of ICT activities among other activities with a view of enabling growth of the ICT industry and increase its contribution to GDP.