Strategic Application of ICT for Economic Development in Africa

ALI YAHIAOUI ,Chief ICT Officer, African Development Bank

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

ITU Workshop on “ICT Innovations in Emerging Economies”

(Tunis, Tunisia, 28 – 31 January 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

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 2013

From 2007 – 2013 Africa concentrated on building ICT national broadband backbone/regional infrastructures Objectives of the Trans –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..

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 agenda

Principle 2: To improve access to ICT especially Broadband to build on the continent’s progress in connectivity especially in underserved areas

Principle 3: To improve accountability, efficiency and open 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 Areas

Agriculture Traceability technologies (RFID) in cattleWater 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.

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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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