“We must run while they walk!” This was the rallying cry first evoked by Julius Nyerere of Tanzania decades ago. It captured both the euphoria and ambition of a newly liberated continent and referenced a key argument in development economics: over time, the economies of poor countries should grow at a faster rate than those of their richer counterparts.
Supporters justify this view by pointing out that poor countries get a free ride from technological innovations funded by the rich. What made Nyerere's slogan seem within reach and gave the idea credibility in development was the possibility that poor countries could leap over some of their richer counterparts by adopting better technologies faster and learning from mistakes made in rich countries.
Today, decades after Nyerere's declaration, that sense of urgent possibility has diminished. Rich countries are getting richer than poor countries, especially in sub Saharan Africa. The “catch-up” effect that made its way to mainstream development economics and found support in some parts of Asia has had little empirical support in Africa.
New technologies are trickling down to Africa, but at considerably high cost, and for much less gain. While there may be other reasons for this, the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Africa shows the challenges that come with adopting new technology. The continent still lacks a high quality regional and international communications backbone infrastructure to make cheap, high quality broadband available to consumers.
Instead, to move voice and data between some places in Africa, it is often necessary to go via Europe and North America. Such routing significantly diminishes the quality of service and connection speeds while hiking costs. In a world where ICT and being connected internationally are crucial for any industry, poor countries spend more of their hard earned and badly needed foreign currency for much less than their richer counterparts.
The challenges to the successful adoption of ICT to aid economic development in Africa are not limited to the lack of basic infrastructure. The continent's sole provider of intra-continental and intra-country optical fiber connections, SAT-3/WASC (South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable) provides is a revealing case study.
SAT-3 links South Africa to Spain and Portugal, running along the Atlantic coast and connecting several countries in West Africa. SAT-3 became operational in 2001 and is owned by a consortium of 36, mostly telecommunications, companies. Part of the cost of commissioning SAT-3 was granting incumbent operators an exclusivity period during which they could use monopoly control over access to recoup their investment.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
While the cable system has resulted in significant bandwidth growth in connected countries and a general decrease in cost, unsurprisingly, the gains have not been to expected levels. The price of SAT-3 bandwidth is still many times higher that prices in the United States.
However, even more worrying is the impact on market institutions of the model, set by SAT-3, of the path towards adopting new technologies that poor countries may follow. A recent case study of SAT-3 connected countries by the Association for Progressive Communications found that the project has reinforced market monopolies in Africa. Incumbent telecoms, mostly owned by governments, have solidified their market positions. Therefore, the gains of infrastructural investment have been held back by an expansion in monopoly control.
In light of this, it is hardly surprising that there is no African answer to the United State's Silicon Valley, India's Bangalore or Israel's Tel Aviv. The cost of leveraging ICT for innovations in Africa is prohibitively high. Where infrastructural deficiencies are overcome, ultimately self-defeating mechanisms have been leveraged to attract the necessary investment. No lessons are internalized as basic market fundamentals are further distorted in an industry where private enterprise has proved itself the best rule of the game.
However, not all hope is lost for ICT in Africa. Key players and groups in the Open Access Community, who advocate open markets and technology neutrality, as well as the entry of new market players may yet bring improvements.
