Weekly News Roundup - Africa 2 April 2008

Country: Uganda
Created By: Esther on 2-Apr-2008 2:52 AM

Rwanda: Study Shows ICT is Underutilised
Businesses and governments must make better use of their communications and computing infrastructure if they are to benefit from the full economic and social benefits of ICT, according to a breakthrough study by Prof. Leonard Waverman of the London Business School and global economic consulting firm LECG. The Connectivity Scorecard analyses not only a nation's ICT infrastructure but the effectiveness of its use.
According to the study, commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks, even the world's best connected countries are not exploiting communications technologies to their fullest potential and in many cases policy and regulatory activity designed to promote connectivity is not having the impact intended.


500,000 computers to least developed countries
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will provide 500,000 computers for the Least Developed Countries (LDC) in its fold in an effort to help enhance their technological development, the Executive Secretary of the Digital Solitary Fund (DIF), Alain Clerc, announced here Friday.

Uganda's Vice President Launches Laptop Project
THE Vice-President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, has urged public servants to acquire laptops under a new scheme he launched on Friday at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
The programme is organised by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Stanbic Bank and US-based companies that manufacture Tropix and Founder computer brands.
Over 300,000 laptops will be loaned to civil servants to promote e-government (electronic government).


Kenyan Banks Challenged to Embrace ICT
Banks should adopt the latest technologies to remain relevant or else be overtaken by mobile phone operators, experts have said. This was said at a meeting of banking technology experts in Nairobi aimed at providing the region's banking community with in-depth briefings on latest technology systems. Opening the conference on Tuesday, Information Minister, Mr Samuel Poghisio, said IT is transforming the sector to increase competitiveness at the national and international level.
"Banks need to speed out their roll outs of accessible and affordable banking services through the innovative application of ICTs before they become entirely overtaken by the mobile operators, " he said.

Family 'digital divide' putting children at risk
Grandparents as well as parents should take part in a national internet safety campaign to ensure children in their care cannot access unsuitable material online, a Government-backed review has concluded.
Here you can find ten tips to help protect your children.

Kenya in mobile phone share sale
African mobile phone use has rocketed in recent years
The Kenyan government has launched a share flotation of Safaricom, the country's largest mobile phone network.
President Mwai Kibaki's administration is selling off a 15% stake in the company, a move which is expected to raise about $750m (£376m). Analysts said the share sale had been greatly oversubscribed, with ordinary citizens the bulk of the buyers. Opposition parties had tried to delay the issue because of uncertainty over Safaricom's other shareholders.


WiMAX can help bridge the digital divide’
Chennai: One quick way to bridge the digital divide can be a wide implementation of WiMAX, says Mr Muthu Logan, President and CEO of BroVis Wireless Networks. “WiMAX is going to revolutionise the acceptance of broadband and bridging the digital divide. It is a sure bet in our opinion,” he observed during an interaction with Business Line.
Dispelling a common myth that WiFi/WiMAX is typically used for the last-mile and extended enterprise applications within cities, Mr Logan says that the technology lends itself to rapid adaptation in rural areas.



East Africa: French Firm Starts Work On Fibre Optic Cable
THE race to link Eastern Africa to the global network of highspeed Internet has moved into high gear with the start of work on a submarine fibre optic cable by one of the builders.
Last week, Alcatel Lucent, the French firm that won the contract to build the submarine fibre optic cable on the Indian Ocean coast under the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) initiative announced that it had started work ahead of the two privately-funded competitors.

Experts to Develop Paper On Africa Submarine Cable
THE Government and stakeholders in information and communications technology (ICT) are to set up a team of experts to develop a position paper on the building of the African submarine cable. Dr Ham Mukasa Mulira, the ICT minister, said voice and data communication in Uganda was slow and expensive.
The cables are aimed at improving Internet communication.
He said with the construction of the fiber optic submarine cables, there was an opportunity to improve speed, affordability and access to information and communication technology (ICT) to ICT-hungry Africa.

Digital skills divide emerging across socio-economic lines
“Parents’ access to childrearing information appears to be on the rise, in large measure because of the Web. Unfortunately, the rise in Web use has been accompanied by a pronounced ‘digital divide’ involving socio-economic status differences in Web use, Web skills and Web satisfaction. This gives rise to concerns about the quality of information lower SES parents are accessing, said Rothbaum.

Contact Name: Esther Nasikye

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