ICT has to be at the heart of African development; and governments need to coordinate their efforts to use ICTs to benefit their people, says South African Communications Minister Dina Pule.

The Minister was speaking at the inaugural ICT Indaba, hosted by South Africa’s Department of Communications, in Cape Town. The Indaba has brought together ICT stakeholders from across Africa.

Pule said: “Through various regional ICT agreements on the continent, we are on course to overcoming the challenges of connecting all the African cities, towns and villages. These agreements have created public-private partnerships that are designed to harmonise the regulatory and legislative environment in the continent to position it to fight cybercrime and to foster socio economic advancement and development.” 

Pule notedd: “To reap the benefits of technology evolution for the benefit of our people, our governments need to coordinate efforts in the region to achieve improved development. Central to this coordination will be the creation of partnerships with the private sectors and labour organisations and civil organisations to find solutions to our most pressing questions of inequality, poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment on the continent. “

The Minister said it was hoped that an ICT Indaba declaration would emerge from the summit, which would give direction on what leaders in government, business, labourand individuals can do to accelerate our discourse for ICT for development.

“Deliberations in this conference have to lay the foundation for the harmonisation of continental policies such that these cable connections can create thousands of jobs and enable millions of people across the continent to communicate at cheaper rates,” the Minister said.

Source: Image: SA Communications Minister Dina Pule. By DoC South Africa