Addressing the Challenges of ICT Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Lagging Reform Agenda for Achieving Affordable Universal Access (original) (raw)
Today’s digital developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) requires affordable universal access beyond voice or text messages (short message service – SMS) carried over mobile phones, such as mobile money and the internet at broadband speeds. The World Development Report 2016 on Digital Dividends argues that first-generation supply-side policies for the ICT sector, which aimed at universal access and affordability, have proved highly successful for voice services and selected applications such as mobile payment services using the same 2G platform as the voice service. With the growth of the ICT sector and the development of bandwidth-heavy applications, the policy focus is progressively shifting from solving supply-side challenges (such as how to ensure affordable universal access to networks) to addressing demand-side challenges (such as how to ensure that networks are open and safe). This will allow individuals, governments, and enterprises to take full advantage of the digital revolution and reap the Digital Dividend. This article reviews the state of the sector’s performance in AFCW3 countries and highlights a lagging reform agenda along with risks of the emergence of a cozy oligopoly market structure, issues related to distressed state-owned operators, ineffective implementation of universal access and service policies and programs, and inappropriate taxation of the sector. The note makes the case for governments to tackle the unfished reform agenda if the sector is to achieve better development outcomes in terms of faster growth, more jobs as well as better services.
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This paper explores the extent to which the Universal Access Funds (UAFs) in selected sub-Saharan states - South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya - have tried to fill gaps in ICT infrastructure development and ICT access in rural and perceived uneconomic areas. Following the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in the mid-1990s, investment in ICT infrastructures has largely been private sector driven. The private sector focuses mainly on urban and semi-urban areas, rather than less economically profitable rural and remote areas, in which the majority of the sub-Saharan population lives. Investment to rural areas, which have traditionally been perceived as uneconomic, has been limited by the high cost of rolling out networks and services. In order to promote investment in ICTs in under-served territories, several African countries have adopted universal access principles with the intention of providing access to ICT services to marginalised communities. However, these have not yielded significant results in terms of increasing penetration rates to communications services. The emergence of IP-based network and services that have dramatically expanded the range of services available beyond tradition voice services and across traditional distinct broadcasting and telecommunications platforms, has challenged traditional definitions of universal access and service. It is the contention of the paper that at least some of the perceived failure of markets, or the perception that some areas are uneconomic, which provides the rationale for the establishment of UAFs, is often the result of African governments failure to create a policy and regulatory environment conducive to investment, or to open up markets to competitors who may have not found it uneconomic to service areas that incumbents with legacy networks may have.
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