Your excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to open this forum for ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2001.
A “forum” is literally an open space where issues can be debated. Traditionally, the site of a forum was a
place where the spoken voice could easily be heard.
I have called this presentation, “Africa’s new voice”, because I believe that, over the next five days, we will
hear a different Africa speaking.
A newly self-confident Africa. An Africa which does not correspond to the old stereotypes.
In the three short years since AFRICA 1998, the continent’s telecommunications have been reinvented. We
are here to celebrate Africa’s new voice.
Africa’s new voice uses a new network. It is a mobile network; no longer bound to homes or offices. Africa’s
new voice can be heard in the streets, in shops, on the beach, in cars and in trains: in short, Africa’s new
voice can be heard everywhere Africans are.
The companies that are providing Africa’s new voice network are, for the most part, also new. Africa’s new
mobile entrepreneurs are young, and generally privately-owned, companies. They may have foreign partners
but they rarely have foreign owners.
In this presentation, I will argue that Africa’s new mobile companies are exposing old myths; in particular the
myth that market forces somehow do not operate in Africa. Also, Africa’s new mobile users are challenging
the myth that Africans cannot afford telecommunication services.
The changes taking place in African telecommunications are giving rise to a re-evaluation of many
established ideas. In particular, we need to rethink traditional concepts such as universal service and to set
new goals for the future.
A striking illustration of the changing nature of Africa’s telecommunications today, at the start of ITU
TELECOM AFRICA 2001, is that the number of mobilephones in use has increased nearly tenfold since the
time of AFRICA 98. Since 1998, some five million new fixed-line phones have been installed. However, a
massive twenty-five million new mobilephones have been purchased.
During the last few months, the number of mobilephones in Africa has overtaken the number of fixed-line
phones. Here in South Africa, that happened last year and the number of fixed-line phones is now actually
declining. By the time we hold the next TELECOM AFRICA event, we confidently expect the combined total
of telephones and mobilephones in use in Africa to exceed 100 million.
The first hundred years of African telecommunications were about government monopolies and long waiting
lists. Now, you can purchase a mobilephone off the shelf at a supermarket and buy pre-paid minutes from a
street vendor. The next hundred years of African telecommunications will be demand-driven, not supplyconstrained.
The fact that Africa’s new mobile network has been built so fast means that many new market opportunities
have been created. For the most part, those new opportunities have been seized by African companies.
In the Internet field, home-grown companies like Africa Online are making a name for themselves across the
continent.
In the mobile field, companies like MTN, MSI Cellular and Orascom are emerging as market leaders, while
companies like Econet are looking to reach beyond their borders.
Even where licences have been awarded by auction, as in Nigeria, the highest bids have often been made
by African companies rather than North American or European ones.
The new mobile networks being constructed across the length and breadth of Africa are helping to expose
an old myth; namely that Africa is a place where the rules of the free market do not operate.
At one level, this might have been true. Most countries, for instance, still have fixed-line monopolies, in many
cases with national operators dating from former colonial times.
In the mobile world however, that is not the case. More than half of African countries now allow mobile
competition, and many allow at least three operators.
Competition is stimulating the supply of services. In Morocco, for instance, more than three and a half million
new subscribers have been added since a new operator was licensed in 1999.
A second myth which can now be dismissed is the idea that Africans are too poor to pay for services. Again,
there is an element of truth in this; fixed-line networks have long suffered from high levels of unrecovered
debt. But much of the problem lay with government departments that did not pay and with billing and
collection systems that were inefficient.
Mobile companies have successfully overcome this problem by the simple measure of collecting fees in
advance, through pre-paid cards. More than 80 per cent of Africa’s mobile users are on pre-paid schemes,
around twice the global average. In so doing, the mobile operators have effectively privatized and localized
the system of debt collection. This is because pre-paid cards are sold through local shops and garages,
thereby widening the economic benefits which mobile service brings. Also, pre-paid service seems to be
what consumers want.
Over the past year, we have heard much talk, in the different digital divide initiatives, about how far behind
Africa is falling. But this misses the point. The last few years have seen many concrete achievements in
African telecommunications, some of which are summarized in this slide.
Since the start of the new millennium, Sub-Saharan Africa has passed the symbolic teledensity mark of 1,
the final African country has been connected to the Internet and the 100th mobile company has been
licensed. Africa’s achievements are far more interesting than its possible failings.
The fact that two-thirds of African countries now have independent regulators, as high a percentage as any
other developing region, means that the foundations are well set for the future.
Africa is challenging many preconceived notions, especially in respect of universal service. Those developed
countries that have achieved universal service have generally done so by extending their fixed-line networks.
But the first African countries to achieve universal service, such as Reunion or Morocco, will do so through
their mobile networks.
As a result, a whole new set of indicators becomes relevant, such as the percentage of the population with
mobile coverage, or the number of Internet cafes. Consequently, traditional approaches to extending access,
for instance by providing telecentres or subsidizing access, may no longer be relevant. Also, conventional
indicators of universal service, such as a telephone in every home, are not appropriate.
The new edition of ITU’s African Telecommunication Indicators, which I launched yesterday, concludes by
arguing that Africa’s future telecommunications will be wireless and pre-paid, competitive and shared.
Realizing this vision will demand a new approach from policy-makers and regulators. What better place to
begin than here at AFRICA 2001.
To conclude, I would like to say a few words about a theme which will dominate ITU’s work over the next few
years, namely the creation of the Information Society.
It was an African country, South Africa, our hosts, which held the first conference on the Information Society
and Development, back in 1996. And another African country, Tunisia, first proposed this topic as the focus
of a World Summit, in 1998.
This event will enable us to focus on a number of issues that are dear to Africa’s leaders, such as moving
beyond the digital divide, celebrating African content and anticipating the challenges of convergence.
Most importantly, the World Summit on the Information Society will provide an opportunity to cement Africa’s
links with the global information network and society.
I hope you will join us as we prepare for the World Summit, in the prepcoms, regional meetings and
workshops that we will be holding in the coming months as we prepare for the two phases of the World
Summit on the Information Society, in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.
Thank you.