Infrastructure, Access and Content for Electronic Commerce: Some Perspectives from Experiences of th

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Infrastructure, Access and Content for
Electronic Commerce Some Perspectives from
Experiences of the African Information Society
Initiative

• Lishan Adam, PhD
• Regional Advisor on ICTs
• ECA

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AISI

• May 1996
• Adoption of African Information Society
  Initiative
• Resolution 812(xxxi)
• 1996
• OAU Summit
• African Regional
• Telecommunication Development Conference
• 1997
• Denver G7 1 Summit
• 1998
• Africa Telecom98
• Global Connectivity for Africa

• 1999
• ADF - AISI3
• information infrastructure
• democratization of access
• ICT and governance
• the Information economy

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More info web sites

• www.un.org/depts/eca
• www.un.org/depts/eca/adf
• www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi

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Topics

• Infrastructure, content and access for
  development of a knowledge society
• Status of access, content and infrastructure for
  ecommerce in Africa
• Implications to electronic commerce
• Way forward

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Development, decentralisation the Knowledge
Society

• New paradigm, emphasising the value of each human
  mind, rather than automating their muscle.
• Sustained through networks, not single
  organisations.
• Supports distributed rather than centralised
  intelligence.
• Requires multiple skills and continuous learning.
• Emphasis on self-sufficiency.
• Emphasis on sustainability NOT subsidy.
• Enabled by Interactive ICTs whilst simultaneously
  driving the development of new ICTs.

Africa far behind by all measures
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Access, Content and Infrastructure are key for
development
Infrastructure
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Status of infrastructure
Internet content, 1998
Telecom environment, 1996
Ecommerce changing def. Of basic
communications sustainable ecommerce needs MPCCs
Spread to rural areas Competition national and
regional peering
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No African backbone
Http//www.ctr/columbia.edu/nemo
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Regulatory Framework
IP Telephony
Call back
Driving forces

• Problem of balance and confusion
• Foreign Direct Investment/ local funding
• Competition and monopoly
• Private/public
• Centralized/decentralized

FCC

• Bottom-up approach, short term low exposure to
  risk (Cellular, radio, VSAT, other value added
  services such as the Internet)
• 10 top-down investment in incumbent PTT

WTO/WB
Users
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Telecom policy, 1998
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• Banking infrasructure
• Little interest to electronic commerce
• Lack of credit card systems- 20 of Africa
• Lack of ecommerce culture ATM - 20 of Africa
• Payment systems are far from being conducive to
  electronic commerce, differences in banking
  procedures

HRD
A letter takes almost a year to bounce from
Kinshasa to Addis inadequate postal infrastrcture
shortage
eager
Dilemma between those eager to learn and the
shortage
Bad roads- It took the African Connection Rally
team two days for a distance which is often
covered in one day in Europe
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Status of Access
Data 1996
24K- 45K in ZA
87 Zambians 98 Ethiopia degree
Education
Wealth
AGE
44 Zambians national 6 are government
86 Ethiopia 83 Senegal 64 Zambia
Gender
Institution
Cost of Internet commerce plat from
varies companies spend 250K, 500k and 1.2 Mil.
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Status of content
Web content growing slowly online media,
tourism, 60 of countries with TPs Government
sites Academic sites French and Protugese
sites
Limited direction to SMEs non-existent content
for communities
Host growth in Africa relative to the world
Africa losing ground in growth of Knowledge
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Implications to Electronic Commerce
Individual opportunities
NICI - Direction
Equity and QL based approach integrated
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Ad-hoc -Opportunities based electronic commerce

• Sell tangible and intangible or traditional and
  non-traditional products
• Buy goods and services at an advantageous prices
  internationally
• Search for products, auction sites,
• Use as opportunities to bypass bureaucracy
• Innovative infomediaries

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NICI Guided electronic commerce
Secretariat detat a linformatique
IDSC
Secretariat detat based on AISI
Acacia Senegal 2015
Dept state public works
FAO, IP
ESTC One of the 6 priorities of Ethiopian
Government
FAO, IP and ECA
Acacia
DELGI IICD, ORSTOM roundtable in 1997 and govt.
commitment
ECAGoR
Coordinated by GNICC at UoG
ministry of telecom and IT MCB National
strategy
Acacia USA dynamic telecom presidential support
Acacia CIEUM
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NICI awareness led electronic commerce

• emerge with a consistent sets of policies and
  co-ordinated strategy for various legislative,
  policy and regulatory issues duties, HRD,
  infrastructure , applications and contents
  including for e-commerce based on development
  challenge
• Tourism - hotels and others to contact customers
  Egypt, touregypt, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda,
  Tanzania, South Africa.net)
• HI-tech warfare - Train millions of people - a
  new army million
• Offshore teleporting training in information
  processing and opportunities - Morocco
• Focus on elementary and secondary schools- Sudan

AISI NICI Coverage
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Philosophy
Quality of life Equity
Strategy in South African DOC
Socio-political Arena
Economic Arena
Central
Corporate
Government
Business
Provincial
Medium
Government
Enterprise
Globalization
Small
Local
Decentralization
Enterprise
Government
Integrated Local
Support
Community
Micro
Structures
Enterprise
Policy, debate
Smart Development with ICTs
Participation leadership
50 million in 1996 2.5 billion in 2002
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1. Participatory knowledge/capacity building
Leaders champions researchers schools media drop
centers infomediaries

• It is information on what is possible that
  helps policy makers (managers) to make choice -
  adapt or perish
• It is knowledge that helps us to prepare for the
  knowledge society ( goods,teleporting, software,
  content)
• It is knowledge that helps to define the best
  Internet business and electronic commerce models
  that will be useful to countries
• it is knowledge that continue to act as
  precursor for wealth creation an poverty
  alleviation
• It is knowledge that helps to map the complex
  issues related to electronic commerce

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Bit tax, tax law app tax on electronic goods
Legal
Tax
Trade mark/DNS participation
IPR
Domain Name Services traditional
Copy rights WIPO/WTO TRIPS
Abuse Virus Internal Theft Fraud
Weak key escrow direct access
Cryptography security, fraud privacy
Security
Trust
Privacy
Scrutiny choice access
TTP CA
Government, self informed consent technology
Authenticity Non-repudability
Digital signature digital contract
UNICTRAL Model Law
Protection
Scam, spam, fraud, gain
Local laws ISP rules WTO,intergov Interpol
Financial
EFT EC
A need for ecommerce policy map
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2. Decentralization, leadership and participation

• A focus on reducing historical disparities
• Decentralization at policy and application
  levels
• Community and individual needs focus and
  democratization of access to ICT and other
  resources
• Assistance to people to manage their own
  development and change, because market forces
  alone cannot bridge the gap between haves and
  havenots
• Capacity building by doing

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With a focus on participatory knowledge and
decentralization of ICT infrastructure
marginalised people who we now consider as
unbankable will dramatically expand their
market via electronic commerce.
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Thank you