KIGALI - Several telecoms giants and donors have pledged billions of dollars to help boost Africa’s ICT sector at the ‘Connect Africa’ summit which concluded yesterday in Kigali.

Among the multinational companies that pledged to increase their investments on the continent include the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), while the World Bank was among the first donors to announce new financial commitments.

On Monday, GSM said that it would invest $50 billion in mobile phone telecommunications in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years.

On the same day, the World Bank Group announced that it expects to double its commitment to ICT on the continent with a raise from the current $1 billion to $2 billion by 2012.

A Chinese telecommunication company, Huawei, also yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to upgrade connectivity in especially rural areas in Africa and in other developing countries.

Both parties agreed to cooperate in improving interconnectivity between regions as well as developing local telecoms expertise.

US software and computer giant, Microsoft, on Monday also signed a memorandum with ITU to accelerate the implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) goals in Africa.

GSM’s investment will be used to extend the reach of GSM mobile networks, enhanced with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) and High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technologies, to provide a rich suite of mobile multimedia services, including Internet access, it said in a release.

GSM estimates that the mobile industry has invested $35 billion, providing more than 500 million people (67 percent of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa with mobile coverage.

The Chief Executive Officer of GSM Rob Conway said: "This surge in investment by the mobile industry has changed the lives of millions of Africans, catalyzing economic development and strengthening social ties.”

The director of World Bank’s operations in Africa, Dr. Hartwig Schafer, said
the bank will continue to promote private sector participation, while supporting public private partnerships to address market gaps, with an emphasis on affordable high speed Internet.

Schafer was speaking to delegates attending the two-day summit at Kigali’s Serena Hotel.

Six African Heads of State, senior government officials, telecoms industry executives and other business leaders from around the world attended the summit.

The World Bank officials said that the Britton woods organisation will channel its support through its three financing arms: the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

However, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade said that Africans need to put in place better structures to ensure that the funds provided for the enhancement of ICT infrastructure are put to good use.

"In 2003 when we launched the digital divide fund, the World Bank pledged $500 million for the development of ICT infrastructures but because of inefficient structures in place, this money has not been put to use,” he said.
He called upon African leaders to ensure that appropriate structures are in place.

"Otherwise we shall always create an impression that we do not need the money.”

Delegates observed that mobile telephony is particularly a remarkable success story in Africa due to the opening up of the ICT markets throughout the continent.

But they said that the challenge now is to replicate the achievement in mobile telephony by also attracting major investment for broadband Internet connectivity.

Only less than 1 percent of Africa’s population has access to high speed connectivity compared to over 30 percent in many other countries.

In a message he sent to the summit, the World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said the access gap must be addressed by using ICT to improve public services, overcome poverty, and enable regional integration.

Telecoms officials estimated that an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration can increase the annual growth rate of GDP by up to 1.2 percentage points.’
The African Development Bank and Microsoft also promised to increase their support for the continent’s ICT sector.

More firms and donor agencies were expected to announce their commitments by press time.

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