Research ICT Africa! (RIA!) has published a new chapter in their e-Index research. At the end of 2006 the report Towards an African e-Index: SME e-Access and Usage Across 14 African countries was published. The SME e- Access and Usage survey was carried out across 14 African countries between the last quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006.

The report explores the impact of ICT on private sector development, and how ICT can contribute to a vibrant SME sector and economic growth in the context of developing economies. The countries covered included Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Research ICT Africa! (RIA!) network seeks to build an African knowledge base in support of ICT policy and regulatory design processes, and to monitor and review policy and regulatory developments on the continent. The establishment of the network originates from the growing demand for the data and analysis necessary for an appropriate but visionary policy required to catapult the continent into the information age. The reports to develop an African e-Index provide an answer to this demand.

The report that was presented in the last quarter of 2006, Towards an African e-Index: SME e-Access and Usage Across 14 African countries, explores the e-access and usage of ICT in the domain of the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

The SME sector has an important role to play in the present and future economic development, poverty reduction and employment creation in developing economies. The report notes that the SME sector is the sector in which most of the world's poor people  work. SME sector growth largely exceeds the average economic growth of national economies in many countries and contributes significantly to employment creation. At the same time, little is known about the impact of ICT on the SME-sector.

The literature to date has failed to create a tight link between the use of ICT and issues such as profitability and labour productivity. This survey aims to provide solid empirical evidence of the link between ICTs and business performance based on firm-level evidence. It is interesting that the survey also tries to include informal businesses, that form the core of the small businesses in Africa.

The report is structured as follows: the first chapter introduces the methodology that was used to achieve the objectives of the study, followed by two chapters providing a brief background of the SME sector and the ICT infrastructure in the 14 countries that participated in the survey. The fifth chapter focuses on ICT access and usage. Chapter Six looks at the impact that the usage of ICT has on the profitability and efficiency of SMEs. Chapter Seven summarises the main conclusions and policy recommendations arising from this analysis.

In 140 pages and some appendices, the report certainly provides new and interesting data on the use of ICT in the SME sector in the 14 countries that were surveyed in Africa (Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). With regard to the impact of ICT the report draws the following main conclusions:

• ICTs are significant input factors for both formal and informal 
  SMEs and contribute positively to revenue generation;
• ICT possession and usage is clearly linked to higher labour 
  productivity;
• Mobile phones have overtaken fixed phones and computers as tools in supporting the running of SMEs, given their prevalence and accessibility;
• The main constraint to ICT usage remains high investment and/or usage costs.

In line with the last point, the report urges for the development of business applications based on the mobile platform. These provide relatively low-cost solutions with a potentially high penetration. Essential, however, is that a payment mechanism is developed. See also WDR's resource on this issue.

Regulation is considered to be the key issue to increase accessibility and affordability of ICT for the SME-sector. It is critical that governments accept that ICT costs can be reduced by establishing a regulatory environment that facilitates competition in the ICT sector.

Although the report provides a wealth of empirical data for policy makers to support informed decision making, its findings are biased towards Anglophone Africa in South East and Central Africa. The findings may not apply to the Francophone countries located mainly in West and North Africa. We wait eagerly for the next chapter of the African e-Index but we hope that it will also include main Francophone players like Senegal, Mali, Algeria or the DRC.

Related report: Gillwald, A. (Ed.), 2005. Towards and African e-Index: Household and Individual ICT Access and Usage in 10 African Countries.

This article has also been published at the website of the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR) - www.regulateonline.org

Blogged with Flock

In most countries (developed as well as the developing world) legislators, regulators and policy makers in the telecommunications and media sectors are confronted with the situation that the strict borders between telecommunication, information technology, media and their supporting infrastructure are disappearing. Convergence of technologies, services and industries demand a fundamental re-thinking of the traditional sectorial legislation and regulations. In a time where ICT penetrates the domain of the audiovisual media and vice versa, a new ball game is starting. 
In their research report Régulation des communications électroniques à l’heure de la convergence: enjeux, état des lieux et perspectives en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre the Centre sur les politiques internationales des TIC Afrique du Centre en de l'Ouest (CIPACO) examines the implications of this trend for Central and West Africa.
The study is based on a large amount of different sources. The interviews to explore the implications of convergence for regulation were mainly conducted with the regulatory authorities in Senegal (Haut Conseil de l’Audiovisuel, HCA, Agence de Régulation des Télécommunications, ART and Direction de l’Informatique de l’Etat, DIE). Case studies outside the regions are also presented. Finally the study tries to identify the key implied issues and explores ways of addressing the induced new regulatory challenges that
face the countries.
In their recommendations to face the challenges of convergence the CIPACO notes that policy makers, regulators, industry and civil society all have to play their role in moving the convergence agenda forward (page 57-58). The study provides practical guidelines.
Policy makers:

• Develop regional and sub-regional approaches and harmonize regulatory frameworks and training programs
• Develop models that can be tailored to countries at different levels of information society development
• Build convergence into technical cooperation projects addressing information society issues
• Bring civil society into information society debates to ensure that the interests of society as a whole are adequately addressed

Regulators:

• Encourage regulatory associations to deepen the understanding of convergence issues
• Establish channels of communication between telecommunications and media regulators to develop rationale for addressing convergence through single regulatory framework

Industry:

• Develop strategic partnerships between infrastructure and content providers
• Develop economies of scale

Civil Society:

• Increase understanding of issues by civil society organizations
• Lobby public and private sector to ensure recognition of social interests

The report provides interesting perspectives on the West and Central African regulatory challenges. We are waiting eagerly for a similar exploration in the East and South African regions by CIPACO's counterpart CIPESA (Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa).

This article has also been published on the website of the World Dialogue on Regulation (www.regulateonline.org)