Strategic Application of ICT for Economic Development in Africa

ALI YAHIAOUI ,Chief ICT Officer, African Development Bank

a.yahiaoui@afdb.orgali.yahiaoui1505@gmail.com

Second SG13 Regional Workshop for Africa on "Future Networks: Cloud Computing, Energy Saving, Security, and Virtualization" Tunis, Tunisia, 28 April 2014

Presentation OutlinePresentation Outline

AfDB Group Overview

Connect Africa Summit –Kigali 2007

Transform Africa Summit – Kigali 2013

Strategic Application of ICT in Africa -E-Transform Africa Study

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African Development Bank Group - Our Assistance to Africa

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AfDB Focus and StrategyAfDB Focus and Strategy

InfrastructureInfrastructure GovernanceGovernance

Private sectorPrivate sectorDevelopmentDevelopment

Higher Education Higher Education and and

Science & Science & TechnologyTechnology

Regional Regional IntegrationIntegration

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Strategic Thrust for the Bank’s ICT Medium Term Strategy & Action Plan

Medium -term Focus

ICT Priority Areas

CountryFocus

Gender, climate change

Table 1 - Bank Group’s non sovereign lending operations in ICT Infrastructure over the past four years

  Projects Bank investment (million $)

Total mobilized funds (million USD)

Submarine Cables

EASSy 15 235

  Main One 60 268        Satellites RASCOM 50 380   New Dawn 30 240   Other 3 billion 50 1200        Telecom Towers

Helios Towers Nigeria

30 345

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Table 2 - The Bank’s financing for regional and national ICT pre-investment studies on

infrastructure   Grants for pre-

investment studies in USD million

I – Regional Backbone Studies  

East African Community Broadband Infrastructure Network

0.45

SADC Backhaul Link 1.40 ECOWAS Wide Area Network 0.50 Central African Backbone 1.09 North African Backbone 0.45 Maritime Communication for safety on Lake Victoria

0.50

   II - National Infrastructure Studies  

Seychelles submarine cable system 0.45 Egypt Navigation Satellite 0.90

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Table 3 – Bank grants to governments for capacity building purpose Grants in USD million

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  Grants for Feasibility studies in USD million

Algeria: Feasibility study for the modernization of the information system

0.750

Algeria : feasibility Study and action plan for the ICT strategy and the Egov Strategy

1.2

Cape Verde: Feasibility study for the Technology Center in Praia 0.440 Cote D’Ivoire: Feasibility Study for the eGov strategy and action plan

.3

Senegal: Feasibility study for the Digital City  .5Mali: Feasibility study for the Bamako Digital Complex 0.225 Morocco: Strengthening the supervision and control of the financial markets

0.730

Morocco: Strengthening the national system of guarantee 0.700 Rwanda: Feasibility study for Center of Excellence 0.100 Tunisia – Feasibility study for Regional Center of Excellence 0.475 Tunisia – Feasibility Study and action Plan for the eGov Strategy and Open Platforms

.7

South Sudan : Feasibility Study for the eGov strategy and national backbone

.4

Table 4 - The Bank’s financing for ICT Projects  Amounts in $ US

I – Centers of Excellence  

RWANDA – Kigali ICT Regional Center of Excellence 25

MALI – Bamako Technology Center 31

CAPO VERDE – PRAIA Technology Center 35

II : National Backbones and EGov Platforms  

   Lesotho – National backbone and data center 12.8

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2. Connect Africa Summit 20072. Connect Africa Summit 2007In 2007 Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, five goals were set :

Goal 1: Interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband infrastructure and strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012

 Goal 2: Connect African villages to broadband ICT services by 2012 and implement initiatives such as community telecentres and villages phones

Goal 3: Adopt key regulatory measures that promote affordable, widespread access to a full range of broadband ICT services

Goal 4: Support the development of a critical mass of ICT skills required by the knowledge economy through the establishment of ICT centers of excellence and ICT-capacity building and training centers

Goal 5: Adopt a national e-strategy, including a cyber security framework, and deploy at least one flagship e-government service as well as e-education and e-health services using accessible technologies in each country in Africa by 2012, with the aim of making multiple e-government and other e-services widely available by 2015.

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3. Transform Africa Summit – Kigali 2013From 2007 – 2013 Africa concentrated on building ICT national broadband backbone/regional infrastructures Objectives of the Transform –Africa Summit:

To pool together International participants to set a new agenda for Africa to leapfrog development challenges through the use and uptake of Broadband and related services.To leverage on the progress registered in connectivity since the Connect Africa Summit and use technology to reduce poverty, enhance participation, improve service delivery and create prosperity for our peopleTo accelerate sustainable socioeconomic development on the continent and usher Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable access to Broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).

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Transform Summit 2013 (suite)Outcome of the Summit

The Transform Africa Summit agreed on a manifesto comprising five principles. Principle 1: To put ICT at the center of our national socio-economic development agendaPrinciple 2: To improve access to ICT especially Broadband to build on the continent’s progress in connectivity especially in underserved areasPrinciple 3: To improve accountability, efficiency and openness through ICT, Develop and implement national e-Government policies and open Data initiatives.Principle 4: To put the Private Sector First: foster an enabling environment for private investments to drive job creation, productivity and competitiveness supported.Principle 5: To leverage ICT to promote sustainable development

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• Take stock of emerging uses and applications of ICTs that are having transformative effects on social and economic development

• Identify key ICT applications (Africa and worldwide) that have the potential for replications and scaling up

• Identify constraints that negatively impact ICT adoption and scaling up, including in policy and regulatory environment

• Develop a common framework among stakeholders, development partners and the donor community for future ICT interventions

4. eTransform Africa Study: Objectives

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Sector Focus AreasAgriculture Traceability technologies (RFID) in cattle

Water management for irrigation

Climate ChangeAdaptation

Climate change adaptation, exploration of applications, tools and systems for adaptive action

Education Open schools through mobile technologies, education networking, monitoring student and teacher attendance

Financial Services Mobile banking, cloud computing,

Health Mobile health, tracking patients, monitoring health clinics

Local ICT Sector Business Process Outsourcing, mobile and online payment platforms, e-commerce

Modernizing Government

Citizen/community interface, eFiling for tax collection, link online payment system to IFMIS

Trade and Regional Integration

Linking regional trade entities (eg COMESA, ECOWAS, SADC), logistics, transparent flow of goods, customs standardization

Sectors and Case Studies

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Lessons from the eTransform sectoral studies

i). Agriculture Case studies :•Analysis of the use of RFID tags for tracking livestock in Botswana •ICT sensor networks used in water management for irrigationThe cases show how ICT can help address some of the challenges facing agriculture and food security in Africa.• Esoko ( in Ghana) is another good example of ICT in improving

agricultural market information services

ii). Climate ChangeCase studies: Malawi, Senegal and Uganda. ICTs role to the impacts of climate change on the potential consequences of climate change, vulnerability to projected impacts, identifying priorities for adaptation

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Lessons from the sectoral studies iii). Education Case studies in South Africa and Uganda. A critical element concerns :

- access learning materials and collaboration platforms.

- Connectivity for accessing learning resources.

iv). Health Case studies of Ethiopia and Mali. Example: as exemplified by the IKON teleradiology program in Mali.

v). Modernizing Government through ICTCase studies:•Integrated financial management systems in Malawi;•electronic tax filing in South Africa. 16

Lessons from the sectoral studies

Case studies : Senegal, Kenya. •Mobile banking has reached a tipping point in Africa and now is the time for policy makers to act boldly. •Financial inclusion has improved in Kenya - where active bank accounts have grown fourfold since 2007 aided by some 17 million M-PESA mobile money accounts.

Focus State of Maturity

Consumer

Public Sector

Private Sector

Formative State Product diversification Wider consumer

identification options

Engage in policy experimentation in:

data standardization and alternatives

transparent property ownership

Diversify products and capital raising channels

Scaling State Raise overall awareness Incent and require obtaining

ID

Remove artificial levies on technologies

Mandate IPv6 transition and compliance

Minimize monopoly and ramp up interoperability

Desired State Ensure competitive environments and consumer protection

Policy conducive to integrated financial services in place

Full-fledged Interoperability Platforms for basic

payments as semi-public products

vi). Financial Services

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Lessons from the sectoral studies

vii). Regional trade and Integration

• The cross-cutting study included case studies of Botswana, Kenya and Senegal

• The studies focused on ICT use in governance, logistics and cross-border information exchange mechanisms.

ICTs and trade – the supporting environment

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Lessons from the sectoral studies

viii). ICT Competitiveness

Case studies of Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria. Provided the African ICT market continues its impressive double-digit growth, the market could be worth more than US$150 billion by 2016.

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5. CONCLUSION

Africa’s challenge for this decade is to build on the mobile success story and broadband progress to complete the transformation. Now is the time for rigorous evaluation, replication, innovation and scaling up of best practice.To be able to do this it will require:

i) reducing the cost of access for mobile broadbandii) supporting government private-sector collaboration iii) improving the eCommerce environmentiv) enhancing ICT labor market skillsv) encouraging innovative business models that drive employment, such as microwork and BPOvi) creating spaces that support ICT entrepreneurship, such as ICT incubators, and local ICT development clusters.

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