ICT needs for Africa

Although Africa has realized tremendous growth in mobile phone use, e-banking services and e-commerce there remains significant ICT challenges. 'The Herald' in Zimbabwe recently published an article highlighting the African stats of a recent World Economic Forum ICT report describing the bleak performance of ICT in Africa. Sub-Saharan African countries rank very low on the top 120 country ranking in the report.

The WEF report was first launched in 2001 and has become a valuable and unique benchmarking tool to determine national ICT strengths and weaknesses, and to evaluate progress. It also highlights the continuing importance of ICT application and development for economic growth.

The WEF Report uses three component indexes which assess:
- environment for ICT offered by a country or community
- readiness of the community's key stakeholders (individuals, business and governments)
- usage of ICT among these stakeholders

Some of the challenges identified by African ICT experts include:
- Inadequate communications infrastructure;
- Lack of ICT facilities;
- Lack of ICT skills;
- Inadequate financial resources;
- Limited public-private sector partnerships;
- Lack of political commitment; and
- Lack of school ICT development programmes.