Discussion on the importance of Broadband in Africa

I had the honor of joining a discussion around the importance of broadband in Africa this morning.

For those who missed it, you can watch it here:

In the process of preparing for this, I watched the powerful speeches during the "Roadmap for Inclusive Growth" by the World Bank. I wanted to share a particularly impactful moment during that event when Odunayo Eweniyi, co-founder of PiggyVest, spoke:

After reading through "Connecting Africa through Broadband report" by the World Bank, the thing that stood out to me most was the importance of taking an ecosystem approach.

This is not easy as it defies the traditional silo approach which got us here where we are today. But, just as in a corporation, silos are developed during phases of extreme growth and change and, if not addressed, can be detrimental. 

So, we now sit here today, all of us with the knowledge of what to do, but struggling with the how. How do we execute it in a new and different environment? And more importantly, why? Why is an ecosystem more conducive to growth? And how does growth happen in an ecosystem?

To begin to solve this, it is important to look at the Economic and Social Impacts that have been researched and documented extensively.

Economic Impacts include entrepreneurial opportunities, E-finance, M-finance, increases in productive sectors such as agriculture, employment opportunities, and training.

Social Impacts include enhancement of education and distance learning, telemedicine, e-health, improved citizen engagement through e-government, improved quality of life through connections, entertainment, and social media, political engagement, participation, awareness, and the ability to protect and monitor the environment.

There are many factors that contribute to how this can be achieved. You can break them down to the Supply and Demand side:

The supply-side needs backbone networks, telecommunications distribution and service networks, supportive and passive infrastructure, local access connectivity, data centers, devices, equipment and software.

The demand side focuses on the end-user and the factors that determine the willingness and ability to pay for such capabilities which include relevance and understanding of the opportunities, accessibilities, affordability, digital content, and applications that are understandable to the many different sectors, and digital literacy to trust, utilize, and take full advantage of ICT.

Most importantly, "We must ensure that the promise of digital transformation leaves no one behind. Digitization is expanding access to basic needs and services. Several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), such as universal identification, efficient government services, and financial inclusion and job creation require the intensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT)."

Below are the slides from today's presentation. Thank you for all who joined and I am looking forward to continuing our conversations.

Check out my other articles on Nigeria & Africa:

Links:

https://broadbandcommission.org/Documents/working-groups/DigitalMoonshotforAfrica_Report.pdf

https://webfoundation.org/docs/2018/03/Using-USAFs-to-Close-the-Gender-Digital-Divide-in-Africa.pdf