Title: IMPACT OF ICT ON EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN AFRICA PRESENTATION TO EXPERTS GROUP
1IMPACT OF ICT ON EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY
ALLEVIATION IN AFRICAPRESENTATION TO EXPERTS
GROUP
- By
- Dr. M.O. Ubaru
- Director (PRS)
- National Information Technology Development
Agency - NITDA. - 19 November, 2009.
ICTs.
2BACKGROUND
- The report outlines the findings of desk research
and consultations in selected African countries
on the impact of Information and Communications
Technologies (ICTs) on employment creation and
poverty alleviation. - The countries covered in the study are Egypt,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria.
3OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
- The objective of the study is to prepare an
Issues paper on the impact of ICTs on Employment
and Poverty Alleviation in Africa with an
emphasis on - ICT as an economic sector with capacity for
generating huge employment opportunities and for
contributing to rapid economic growth and - ICT as a sector to leverage the growth and
competitiveness of other African economic sectors
4METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
- The study was conducted in a three-stage
information gathering process - Desk research using the internet and available
documentation. This served to generate a
knowledge base about the general ICT situation in
the region. - The research was followed by contacts made with
key informants in the region for leads, pointers
and further background documents. - Then gathering information through interviews
with the key stakeholders from the public and
private sectors and ICT users in Ethiopia, Egypt,
Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria (Appendix A and D
provides information on bibliogrphy and list of
interviewees in the report).
5Liberalization of the ICT sector the importance
of infrastructure
- The study shows that access to reliable, and
affordable telecommunications and electrical
power infrastructure is an important precondition
for the use of ICT to generate employment
opportunities. - Liberalization and the involvement of the private
sector have hastened the adoption of these
technologies, particularly in the case of
Broadband wireless and mobile. - The study reveals that the African countries
where the ICT sector have been liberalized tend
to have higher telecommunications penetration as
reflected in the increased growth in teledensity,
more vibrant economy with more jobs being created
directly and indirectly and more positive impact
on poverty alleviation than countries that are
not liberalized.
6Overview of ICT status in selected African
countries
7Active Operators and Service Providers
8Pie Chat Showing Teledensity in Selected
African Countries
9(No Transcript)
10Networked Readiness Index 2006 - 2007
11ECONOMIC REFORMS
- Nearly all the African countries examined are
undergoing one form of economic reform or the
other. - ICT barely mentioned in the Poverty Reduction or
Poverty Eradication documents of the various
countries - The documents did not articulate how ICT could be
used to drive the development of the various
sectors of the economy. - This explains why most of these African countries
have only been paying lip service to the question
of ICT for dev. (ICT4D).
12UNIVERSAL ACCESS PROVISION
- Countries such as Nigeria and Egypt have put in
place Universal Service policies that are
designed to facilitate the penetration of ICT
services to rural underserved and commercially
unviable areas of the countries. - Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia are still in the
process of developing their Universal Access
policies.
13HUMAN CAPACITY DEV.
- Apart from Egypt and Nigeria, the study indicates
that most African countries lack the critical
mass of skilled ICT manpower required to drive
and grow the ICT sector. - This goes to underscore the need for deliberate
policies to promote the development of the
required critical mass of skilled ICT manpower in
the various countries.
14DIRECT AND INDIRECT EMPLOYMENTS
- The study shows that ICT is creating jobs in the
countries studied through direct employment in
the ICT industries and indirectly through ICT
enabled and ancillary enterprises. - In Kenya, Currently, there is no proper audit of
the existing ICT human resource capacity. The
Computer Society of Kenya estimates that there
are a total of 5,500 ICT professionals in the
country, with 300500 graduates in computer
science, electronics/electrical engineering and
library scientists per year. - There is need for a strategy for massive capacity
building to ensure the ready availability of the
critical mass of ICT skilled manpower required to
drive the ICT industry.
15DIRECT AND INDIRECT EMPLOYMENTS contd.
- In Nigeria for instance
- Over 10,000 people are directly employed by the
GSM operators alone while it is estimated that
1,000,000 indirect employment opportunities have
been created through the operation of GSM
(Recharge card hawkers, Resellers etc including
the umbrella people). - Also opportunities exist for Nigeria workers to
serve as expatriates to other countries (Foreign
input to GDP). - The registered ICT companies is put at about
2,000.
16DIRECT AND INDIRECT EMPLOYMENTS contd.
- In Egypt,
- the number of established ICT companies is put at
1,695 as at 2005. - The ICT industry provides over 5,000 direct jobs
and 15,000 indirect jobs. - Over 113,732 graduates of the special IT training
programmes of MCIT have all been employed in the
ICT industry. - The 10,000 seat Call centre at the smart village
carries the potential to put 30,000 young
Egyptian graduates on a steady pay roll.
17ICT BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
- Even though the global outsourcing market is very
huge, most of the countries study are yet tap
fully into it. - The study also shows that African countries have
the potential to participate actively in
outsourcing and a lot of jobs could be created as
a result.
18EFFORTS OF THE DIASPORAS
- Just like the Indian example, our finding shows
that Africans in diaspora could play very great
roles in ensuring that the respective countries
take advantage of the emerging BPO and hence
contribute in no small way to the development and
growth of the ICT industries in both Egypt and
Nigeria.
19EFFORTS OF THE DIASPORAS
- For example, the Egyptians in diaspora and the
Nigerians in diaspora are already playing very
active roles to ensure that the respective
countries take advantage of the emerging global
BPO market
20GENDER INITIATIVES
- All the countries visited recognize the need to
meanstream gender in ICT programmes - Egypt is perhaps the only country in all the
countries studied where women participation in
ICT is already very pronounced.
21e-COMMERCE
- The lack of a functioning e-payment systems and
e-signature acts in the countries visited are
hindering the growth of e-commerce in these
countries - There is need therefore, in collaboration with
relevant stakeholders, to create the necessary
enabling environment for the establishment of
e-payment systems.
22COST OF BANDWIDTH FOR INTERNET ACCESS
- Interviews carried out in the examined African
countries indicate that the minimum Bandwidth
required for meaningful internet access is 256
Kbps. - However, the high cost of bandwidth in most of
the countries studied has been a major deterrent
to ICT penetration and hence a major hindrance to
creation of jobs through ICT. - The free internet strategy adopted by Egypt is
worth replicating in other African countries as a
way of enhancing ICT diffusion.
23ENTERPRENEURSHIP
- In most African countries the education system
does not emphasize entrepreneurship with the
result that graduates are always looking up to
the government to provide jobs. - It is therefore very expedient that the
education systems be reviewed to encourage
entrepreneurship which would encourage young
graduates to be innovative, creative and job
creators rather than job seekers.
24e-AGRICULTURE
- The study shows that the value chain created
through the introduction of appropriate
e-agriculture programmes holds very huge
potentials for generating large volume of decent
jobs. - For instance the Egyptian pilot e-Agriculture
programme, the Virtual Extension Research
Communication Network (VERCON), provides the
platform for information sharing between
agricultural researchers and extension workers
and - currently there were already 57 nodes in the
network (5 in central and 52 in 6 governorates),
and it had already created jobs for over 1000
workers including 92 extension workers, 12
researchers, and other workers involved in
content development. - It has also contributed tremendously to
empowering farmers with relevant information to
boost their productivity and profitability.
25- SUMMARY /STATISTICS OF FINDINGS
26Networked Readiness Index 2006 - 2007
27MAIN FINDINGS ON EGYPTIAN ICT SECTOR 99 - 2005
28MAIN FINDINGS ON EGYPTIAN ICT SECTOR 99 2005
contd.
29MAIN FINDINGS ON NIGERIAN ICT SECTOR 99 2005
- Table Total Connected Lines and Teledensity
(1999-2006)
1 Teledensity was calculated based on
population estimate of 120 million people. 2
Teledensity was calculated based on population
figure of 140 million people.
30MAIN FINDINGS ON KENYIAN ICT SECTOR 99 2006
31MAIN FINDINGS ON ETHIOPIAN ICT SECTOR 99 2006
32Recommendation
- Following are very important areas where the
African countries could focus efforts with a view
to create decent jobs, reduce unemployment and
alleviate poverty - Outsourcing
- Community Multipurpose Telecentre (CMCs), using
post offices as outlets, and combining several
technologies- radio, GSM, Internet , TV, and
multi-media - Market driven e-Agriculture.
- Promoting ICT based SMEs through franchising
33Recommendation contd
- Following are very important with respect to
alleviate poverty - Review of education curriculum to meanstream ICT
in education right from primary school and to
emphasize entrepreneurship - Encourage life-long learning, distance-learning,
e-learning, and re-skilling
34Recommendation contd
- Role of Government
- Creation of enabling environment through
appropriate incentives - Education reform with emphasis on
entrepreneurship - Creation of IT parks and ICT incubators to assist
startups. Eg Egyptian smart village - Promoting ICT based SMEs by facilitating access
to funds - Creation of Universal Service fund to facilitate
ICT diffusion to rural and underserved areas - Facilitate creation of regional and international
trade
35Recommendation contd
- Role of NGOs and CBOs
- Advocacy and awareness creation
- Mentoring and training of young entrepreneurs
- Promoting gender issues
36Recommendation contd
- Role of Private sector
- Support RD
- Software development
- Outsourcing
- Mentoring and training of young entrepreneurs
(Internship)
37Conclusion
- For the African continent to alleviate poverty
and reduce unemployment, we more than most other
continents, need to employ a deliberate set of
strategies and policies that favour the use of
ICTs in the quest to make our economies more
viable. - There is need for the ICT implementing agencies
in the various African countries to carry out
further survey with a view to gathering more data
on the impact of ICTs on socio-econiomic
development as the available documents are very
scanty on relevant data.
38Thank you.
- Dr. M.O. Ubaru
- Director Planning Research and Statistics
- National Information Technology Development
Agency - (NITDA)
- No. 28 Port-Harcourt Crescent
- Area 11, Garki,
- Abuja-Nigeria
- E-mail mubaru_at_nitda.gov.ng, moses_ubaru_at_yahoo.com