Strategic Application of ICT for Economic Development in Africa ALI YAHIAOUI, Chief ICT Officer, African Development Bank ITU Workshop on “ICT Innovations in Emerging Economies” (Tunis, Tunisia, 28 – 31 January 2014)

Presentation Outline AfDB Group Overview Connect Africa Summit –Kigali 2007 Transform Africa Summit – Kigali 2013 Strategic Application of ICT in Africa -E- Transform Africa Study 2

Financing Products Grants & Concessional Lending Loans & Equity Investments Technical Assistance & Policy-based Lending Type of Type of Intervention Projects & program-based operations Non-project activities Procuremen t GoodsWorksServices African Development Bank Group - Our Assistance to Africa 3

AfDB Focus and Strategy Infrastructure GovernanceGovernance Private sector Development Development Higher Education and Science & Technology Higher Education and Science & Technology Regional Integration 4

Strategic Thrust for the Bank’s ICT Medium Term Strategy & Action Plan Medium -term Focus ICT Priority Areas Country Focus Gender, climate change

2. Connect Africa Summit 2007 In 2007 Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, five goals were set :  Goal 1: Interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband infrastructure and strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012  Goal 2: Connect African villages to broadband ICT services by 2012 and implement initiatives such as community telecentres and villages phones  Goal 3: Adopt key regulatory measures that promote affordable, widespread access to a full range of broadband ICT services  Goal 4: Support the development of a critical mass of ICT skills required by the knowledge economy through the establishment of ICT centers of excellence and ICT-capacity building and training centers  Goal 5: Adopt a national e-strategy, including a cyber security framework, and deploy at least one flagship e-government service as well as e-education and e-health services using accessible technologies in each country in Africa by 2012, with the aim of making multiple e- government and other e-services widely available by

3. Transform Africa Summit –Kigali 2013 From 2007 – 2013 Africa concentrated on building ICT national broadband backbone/regional infrastructures Objectives of the Trans –Africa Summit: To pool together International participants to set a new agenda for Africa to leapfrog development challenges through the use and uptake of Broadband and related services. To leverage on the progress registered in connectivity since the Connect Africa Summit and use technology to reduce poverty, enhance participation, improve service delivery and create prosperity for our people To accelerate sustainable socioeconomic development on the continent and usher Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable access to Broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). 7

Transform Summit Outcome of the Summit The Transform Africa Summit agreed on a manifesto comprising five principles. Principle 1: To put ICT at the center of our national socio-economic development agenda Principle 2: To improve access to ICT especially Broadband to build on the continent’s progress in connectivity especially in underserved areas Principle 3: To improve accountability, efficiency and open Develop and implement national e-Government policies and open Data initiatives. Principle 4: To put the Private Sector First: foster an enabling environment for private investments to drive job creation, productivity and competitiveness supported. Principle 5: To leverage ICT to promote sustainable development 8

Take stock of emerging uses and applications of ICTs that are having transformative effects on social and economic development Identify key ICT applications (Africa and worldwide) that have the potential for replications and scaling up Identify constraints that negatively impact ICT adoption and scaling up, including in policy and regulatory environment Develop a common framework among stakeholders, development partners and the donor community for future ICT interventions 4. eTransform Africa Study: Objectives 9

SectorFocus Areas AgricultureTraceability technologies (RFID) in cattle Water management for irrigation Climate Change Adaptation Climate change adaptation, exploration of applications, tools and systems for adaptive action EducationOpen schools through mobile technologies, education networking, monitoring student and teacher attendance Financial ServicesMobile banking, cloud computing, HealthMobile health, tracking patients, monitoring health clinics Local ICT SectorBusiness Process Outsourcing, mobile and online payment platforms, e-commerce Modernizing Government Citizen/community interface, eFiling for tax collection, link online payment system to IFMIS Trade and Regional Integration Linking regional trade entities (eg COMESA, ECOWAS, SADC), logistics, transparent flow of goods, customs standardization Sectors and Case Studies 10

Lessons from the eTransform sectoral studies i. Agriculture Case studies : Analysis of the use of RFID tags for tracking livestock in Botswana ICT sensor networks used in water management for irrigation The cases show how ICT can help address some of the challenges facing agriculture and food security in Africa. Esoko ( in Ghana) is another good example of ICT in improving agricultural market information services ii. Climate Change Case studies: Malawi, Senegal and Uganda. ICTs role to the impacts of climate change on the potential consequences of climate change, vulnerability to projected impacts, identifying priorities for adaptation 11

Lessons from the sectoral studies iii. Education Case studies in South Africa and Uganda. A critical element concerns : - access learning materials and collaboration platforms. - Connectivity for accessing learning resources. iv. Health Case studies of Ethiopia and Mali.  Example: as exemplified by the IKON teleradiology program in Mali. v. Modernizing Government through ICT Case studies: Integrated financial management systems in Malawi; electronic tax filing in South Africa. 12

Lessons from the sectoral studies Case studies : Senegal, Kenya. Mobile banking has reached a tipping point in Africa and now is the time for policy makers to act boldly. Financial inclusion has improved in Kenya - where active bank accounts have grown fourfold since 2007 aided by some 17 million M-PESA mobile money accounts. vi. Financial Services 13

Lessons from the sectoral studies vii. Regional trade and Integration The cross-cutting study included case studies of Botswana, Kenya and Senegal The studies focused on ICT use in governance, logistics and cross-border information exchange mechanisms. ICTs and trade – the supporting environment 14

Lessons from the sectoral studies viii. ICT Competitiveness Case studies of Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria. Provided the African ICT market continues its impressive double-digit growth, the market could be worth more than US$150 billion by

5. CONCLUSION Africa’s challenge for this decade is to build on the mobile success story and broadband progress to complete the transformation. Now is the time for rigorous evaluation, replication, innovation and scaling up of best practice. To be able to do this it will require: i) reducing the cost of access for mobile broadband ii) supporting government private-sector collaboration iii) improving the eCommerce environment iv) enhancing ICT labor market skills v) encouraging innovative business models that drive employment, such as microwork and BPO vi) creating spaces that support ICT entrepreneurship, such as ICT incubators, and local ICT development clusters. 16