ICT and development making a difference African experiences
Russell Southwood, Balancing Act
http://www.balancingact-africa.com
http://www.afridigital.net
Users and Access
• Market, market stretching and beyond the market
(Universal Access Funds)
• Internet estimates: South Africa (2.5 m users), CI
(40,000 users) Kenya (20-30,000 dial-up), Senegal
(11,000 dial-up), Mali & Niger (5,000 users)
• Dial-up numbers vs user numbers. The sociodemographics of the new cyber-café users - The
coming generation
• The strange case of telecentres. Work with CINSA
(social entrepreneurship)
Content and transactions
• 300,000-500,000 sites. Morocco: 4000.
• Functional first generation “brochureware”
• Lots of all-Africa portals, every country has several
portals. News sites that version print or broadcast
media, some streaming.Academic sites but mostly in
USA and Europe.
• NGO and diaspora network lists & sites.
• A very small number of e-commerce sites, mainly
crafts. Small-scale except SA.
• OKN work - sustainability and new models
The case of the missing ecommerce
• Tourists and past visitors (hard currency)
Tourism as the killer app?
• Diaspora (hard currency). Example: In Ghana it is
estimated they send US$500 million a year back
home in goods and cash. Example: Most of
Ghana Mall’s customers come from USA,
Germany and Belgium
• Charge per transaction(Verisign: 2.4%, WorldPay
2.9% + 30 cents per transaction) Countries not
approved for merchant accounts.
Infrastructure
• The starting point: AfrISPA’s policy statement - the Halfway
Proposition
• US$400m a year in foreign exchange exported from Africa
to foreign carriers to carry traffic from one African country
to another
Crude cost comparisons
Local call (single city)
US$60 pm per 64 kbps
National (long distance)
US300 pm per 64 kbps
International (equivalent
distance)
US$1000 pm per 64 kbps
• Cost of transporting local traffic is 17 times
lower than
International traffic.
• Impact of monopoly incumbent telcos pricing
power
The growth of local IXPs
• Arguments: reduction in operating
costs; reduction in end-user costs;
increase in local hosting and service.
• Mantra: Keep local traffic local
• Currently nine IXPs: .SA, .MZ, .ZW,
.EG, .KE, .NG (Lagos soon onstream), .TZ,.UG & .CD
The impact of a local IXP
• Kenyan IXP online in 2002. Started
with 4 ISPs, now 10 are connected
• Usually 200-900 millisecond delay
per hop internationally. 30-60
millisecond latency locally
• 20-25% of all traffic and growth of
streaming services
The next step: Regional
Exchange Points
• Connecting up the IXPs to exchange intercontinental traffic and creating regional
traffic to be peered internationally
• Background to the debates: earlier
proposal for PAVIX
• Connectivity Africa study: Two options PAVIX revisited and regional carrier/s
• Regulatory issues (VSAT in SA)
Source: CTiA Report 2002/03
Current African submarine fibre
Potential for economic
change
• Growth of SMEs and impact of ICT on SME
sector
• Need for policies to encourage
entrepreneurship and SMEs who use ICT
• Efficiencies in the economy, outsourcing
and attracting tourism
• Entrepreneurship and ICT workshops in
Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Nigeria, Mali
and Jamaica. Upcoming: Burkina Faso
Regulation: Mind-shifts
needed 1
• Govts need to go from owning telcos and
taking money from them TO taking
revenues through licence fees and taxes.
Nigeria: USD1 billion in licensing fees.
Other countries smaller but point holds.
• You exchange current inefficiencies for
traffic-related income. Encourage the
private sector to make money for you.
Regulation: mind-shifts - 2
• Selling off all or part of the incumbent, role of
Govt changes. It has to express its national
interest through having a policy. It and the
regulator have to play a facilitating role.
• All African Govts want control therefore this will
be contested. Powers have to be separated.
Ghana and Senegal examples. Need to be at
arms-length
Regulation: mind-shifts
needed 3
• Shift in intl power from ITU/Accounting
Rate system to issues of ownership and
competition in the WTO. Agreements
cover 90% of markets. Need to engage in
these issues at an intl level
• AfrISPA’s Halfway Proposition re
rebalancing internet traffic revenues. The
self-help route: RXPs and African Internet
Exchange
Commercial break
• News Update - weekly e-letter on connectivity
issues across Africa. 6800+ subscribers in
government, private sector, NGOs and
education.
• Monthly French language edition just
launched.
• African Internet Country Market Profiles - All
54 African countries with Mike Jensen. Out
soon.