Speaking at the International Telecommunications (ITU) workshop yesterday, Molefhi said Africa's inadequate ICT infrastructure contributes to limited prospects for the continent's integration as many African countries are at the lower rank of the ICT status. "Africa has low ICT skills base. It is therefore critical that as we continue to put more resources in the area of ICT infrastructure development, we should equally intensify our efforts to develop and manage human capital," he said.He said if properly leveraged, ICT tools are sources of vital management information for decision-making, and enable human resources management to become more strategic within organisations.
"Despite all these changes, the extent to which ICTs have been used to manage human capital in the place of work has not matched the pace at which the technology has marched," he said. He explained that the use of ICTs has ushered in the information age, where economies compete on the basis of the ability of their citizens to access, package and use information to exploit available economic opportunities. "Some of the developing nations such as Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and others have managed to leverage on the benefits of ICTs to compete effectively with the developed nations. These countries have demonstrated to the world that ICTs hold a great potential to fast track economic development," said Molefhi.He said that the use of ICTs in developing and managing the labour force would be crucial.
