Rwanda is Site for October Connect Africa Summit

Photo: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L), and ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré

The Connect Africa Summit, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, on 29 and 30 October, will seek to promote partnerships and the roll-out of ICT infrastructure, including broadband, as a precondition for ICT access and services in Africa.

Connect Africa aims to mobilize the human, technical and financial resources needed to close major gaps in Africa's ICT infrastructure. Participants will be able to showcase ICT and African development projects to potential partners and donors, announce concrete initiatives to connect Africa, and focus on requirements such as expanding broadband infrastructure, wireless and mobile access technologies, creating the right business environment, developing an ICT-savvy workforce and promoting innovative financing.

The event will engage some 500 high-level participants from China, India, the European Commission, the G8, OECD and Arab countries, as well as from major ICT companies.  It will be preceded by a meeting of African ICT Ministers on 27-28 October, also in Kigali.

While investment in ICT infrastructure has improved dramatically in recent years, reaching $8 billion in 2005 (up from $3.5 billion in 2000), and growth in mobile phones has increased by as much as 400 per cent, Africa has fallen back in overall connectivity.  Fewer than 4 per cent of Africans have Internet access; broadband penetration remains below 1 per cent; and 70 per cent of all Internet traffic within Africa is re-routed outside the continent, driving up costs for businesses and consumers.

"We need a Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa," said Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, announcing the Summit on 11 July.  "We have to mobilize the world's human, financial and technical resources to support economic growth, employment and development across Africa."

Expressing his support to the initiative, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it represented a significant step in overcoming the digital divide.  "This is an important vision," he said.  "We need to make our best efforts to bridge this gap."

The Summit will be held under the patronage of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and Ghana's President John Kufour, the chairman of the African Union.

The event is organized by the International Telecommunication Union, the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, the World Bank and the African Union, in partnership with the African Development Bank, the African Telecommunication Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, with the support of Intel, whose chairman, Craig Barrett, is also the chair of the UN Global Alliance.