ICT companies urged to offer bandwidth services

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Friday November 19, 2010 00:00

Though mobile usage has increased in Africa more than in both Asia and the Middle East in recent years, access to internet remains a challenge- at about 5% internet usage in the continent. This has hampered economic growth and government efforts of alleviating poverty.

At a recent Information, Communication Technology (ICT) conference attended by stakeholders from government with a large presence of Swedish ICT companies, Butiki Shabangu from Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa said the digital divide is a major obstacle in Africa. In his presentation on the topic, 'Digital Cities and Integrated Safety and Security Agencies', Shabangu said improved information flow could bring efficiency in governments through e-services.

'Increased access to ICT can uplift communities, as it enables access to information and educational benefits,' he said. He implored ICT private companies to build consortiums as working jointly enables sharing of resources compared to buying own equipment, which is costly and hinders growth of the sector. He added that cities or municipals take a leading role in availing access to the Internet, as it is their role to deliver services to the people, as mobile operators are into making profit.

Shabangu said it is vital to deepen the role of ICT in national development programmes in order to increase skills and citizen literacy.

The Swedish Trade Council together with the Botswana Export Development & Investment Authority and the Botswana Innovation Hub hosted the conference. The latter is one of Botswana's government effort to promote an information and knowledge society that harnesses creativity and innovation.

The hub targets four focus areas namely ICT, mining technologies, energy, environment and biotechnology.