Will ICTs solve Africa’s problems?

Lazarus Sauti

I

n less than a generation, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have revolutionised the planet.

Innovations like personal computers, the Internet, electronic mail, personal digital assistants and mobile telephones have changed lives the world over, mostly for the better.

These extraordinary advances have happened even in regions where other kinds of social and economic development have lagged behind.

Africa is one such region.

While it is relatively true that few Africans own computers or can access the Internet, some types of ICTs have flourished on the continent.

Furthermore, ICTs are being applied to innovative tasks, such as health research, medical diagnosis, and commodity price monitoring, weather forecasting, and cash transfers.

Despite the fact that ICTs are a game changer, will they solve Africa’s problems? This is a critical question that needs to be answered.

Ultimately, for ICTs to effectively solve Africa’s problems, the continent should scale up innovative abilities to produce their own ICTs and desist from relying on products mostly tailor made for some continents.

Addressing local and international delegates to the 5th International Conference on ICTs for Africa in Harare, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said the continent is tired of being consumers of ICT products from the developed countries, adding that ways should be sought for Africa to be actively involved in the production of ICT materials.

Professor Mutambara said: “The ICT revolution, as a game changer, should be able to positively affect all sectors of the economy such as education, mining and agriculture to increase production.

“We need to be innovative in the production of ICT products. We need to start talking about production of our own ICTs.

“ICTs are an equalizer as they close the gap between the poor and the rich.”

Documenting information in Africa on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) also helps Africa to efficiently solve her problems.

This process requires good ICT systems.

The International Centre for ICT Development representative, Professor Victor Mbarika said: “A lot of information in Africa especially on traditional medicine is still not documented and requires good ICT systems to consolidate it.

“Research on poverty reduction in Africa has shown that there is need to document traditional information especially traditional medicine.”

Since libraries and related institutions are custodians of information and knowledge, they can be effective tools in documenting African stories.

Thus, libraries and related institutions in Africa should be keen to extend their application of ICTs, subject to resources being available.

This extension is not likely to reduce the need for printed books and journals as sources of information, but might provide links to the outside world and increase intra-African exchange of information.

In her book ‘Information and Communication Technologies in Africa’, Kenyan Dr. Catherine Nyaki Adeya - an information scientist writes that librarians need to pay courtesy to the shifting political economy of information.

She says: “Library and information practitioners must pay more attention to the changing political economy of information.

“As libraries and information centres become more 'electronic', there is a possibility that they will converge with computer centres, although currently links between the two are weak in Africa.”

It is a fact that inadequate ICT infrastructure is hindering Africa’s growth. The sad thing is that Africa’s information infrastructure is by far least developed in the world.

Technical statistics consistently show that Africans have the smallest number of telephone lines per capita, the most restricted access to computer equipment, the most primitive information networks, and the most inaccessible media systems.

Dr Adeya writes: “Connectivity problems are hampering Africa’s progress and they are the result of peculiar socio-economic conditions in the African region.

“Many African nations continue to suffer from badly performing economies, high foreign debt and alarming population growth.

“These have direct repercussion on the implementation of ICT and networking projects.”

Consequently, there is the need for Africa to tackle the fundamental problems first before bringing in ICTs to help the development of the continent.

African governments should invest in information infrastructure and train people who can successfully manipulate ICTs.

Professor Mutambara says, “Investing in ICTs will help the continent to effectively handle and disseminate their information and in the process solve different African problems.”

Supporting this assertion, Dr. Adeya writes that incorporating ICTs in Africa would bring Africans together.

She says, “One of the ways to bring most Africans to benefit from ICTs without falling prey to the digital divide syndrome is creating telecenters that would bring people together to meet in specifically designed areas to communicate with others at home and abroad.”

However, African policy formulators must take into account the overlap of previously distinct areas - industry, telecommunications and ICT - as well as identifying the institutions involved in this process if the continent is to efficiently benefit from ICTs.

Political leaders and policy makers in the continent should also integrate African languages with ICTs. This will help the continent to update and publish its content and compete with other continents.

Integrating African languages with ICTs will help the majority of the African citizen to manipulate them and make the best out of them.

Apparently, with proper planning and implementation of ICTs in Africa, truly they will solve Africa’s problems.