Geneva — Infrastructure to help Africa achieve an all-inclusive information and knowledge society is still lacking. The latest statistics by the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) indicate that the continent has the lowest internet penetration with slightly over 100 users for every 10 000 people.

This figure succinctly explains the digital division that exists when Africa is compared to other continents. The comparable figures for Asia, America and Europe are 600, 2 500 and 3 000 respectively.

As most of its citizens live in rural areas where power supplies are erratic and unreliable, the issues of access and infrastructure are critical concerns for the East African Community (EAC) countries namely Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

"We are exploring ways and means where we can involve our energy sectors in the provision of power to our rural areas and in our urban areas make it reliable," said James Rege, the permanent secretary for Information and Communication in Kenya.

"In the same vein we are also discussing how best we can tap into alternative sources of energy. As you are well aware, for ICT4D to function at its best we need power. Also linked to this we are looking forward to affordable tariffs to bolster more users to access ICTs. So this is not just a Kenyan question, but an East African Community and African as whole view point," added Rege who is leading the Kenyan delegation here in Accra.

As he was making these comments, it emerged that Kenya's national telephone company had announced a 69% internet tariff reduction in an effort to broaden access.

"For us we are looking at ICTs as the cornerstone of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in terms of eradicating extreme poverty, achieve universal education, promote gender equality and women empowerment, ensure environmental sustainability, combat HIV/Aids and malaria among others. Once we achieve this, then we are on the right path," said Rege.

He said that appropriate infrastructure, combined with the removal of regulatory obstacles and bureaucratic regimes, will open up rural Africa and enhance regional integration. This will in turn facilitate content provision through multiple platforms such as digital radio, television and internet.

"Just the other day, we had a committee to fast-track the transformation of the East African Community to become a federation. These are some of the concrete proposals that we are looking into through ICTs to facilitate development in our region."