Most of all its broadband - IT Leaders Africa Summit
Thank you for asking me here. And good wishes for your summit. It’s your fifth, I gather. Well, congratulations!
I’m especially pleased to be here because you’ve asked me to speak about Broadband which is our major preoccupation in the department at the moment and for a while to come. And to implement broadband swiftly and effectively, we are clear: we need your help! So come to the party! It’s in all our interests, not least yours. It’s in the whole country’s interests. So we all have to pull together.
I’m told that Johannesburg was the most active Twitter city in Africa, registering 344 215 tweets in the last three months of 2013. Certainly the way that we communicate with the rest of Africa and the world has changed significantly in the last few years. The advent of the internet society is now a reality.
Joburg to Jozini and everywhere in-between is now part of the Information Society. Whether one lives in a shack in Soweto or a mansion in Sandton, chances are that you’re on Facebook or Twitter sharing information with friends and strangers. It’s a world few of us would have imagined 20 years ago. But now, it’s the next 20 years that we have to look towards and plan for.
This brings me to our National Integrated ICT Policy Green Paper. We gazetted it on 24 January. So if you haven’t already sent written comments, please do so. The deadline is 24 March. We’re keen to hear from you.
We had a very good National Consultative Conference on the Green Paper here in Johannesburg on 3 March. We targeted about 400 people. 536 attended. We have had public hearings in North West and Mpumalanga, and will this week have hearings in Eastern Cape and Limpopo. We will have covered all the provinces in the next three weeks.
Friends, the Internet Economy is upon us and we need to make the maximum use of it to grow our economy. And we have to ensure that the youth are key beneficiaries. It’s good that this Summit focuses on IT governance. Lack of trust in companies is a growing phenomenon and was also one of the issues raised at this year’s World Economic Forum. Certainly the more transparent companies are about their dealings, the more likely it is that governments will have to regulate less. And the greater the trust the public will have in you.
An objective of many proposed corporate IT governance reforms is increased transparency. In response to corporate governance scandals, governments have responded by adopting a number of regulatory changes. One component of these changes has been increased disclosure requirements.
For example, in response to the Enron and Worldcom scandals, the United States Government required detailed reporting of off-balance sheet financing and special purpose entities. Additionally, the government increased the penalties on executives for misreporting.
Somebody said IT governance is all about doing the right things right. Essentially, transparency must serve to improve governance.
In December last year Cabinet approved “South Africa connect”, our Broadband Policy and Strategy. Later this week we mark Human Rights Day. Interestingly, the United Nations Human Rights Commission has declared access to the internet a fundamental human right, such is deemed the importance of internet access in the 21st century. The ubiquitous role of the internet in all sectors of society has rendered it essential to improving the quality of lives of citizens.
The Internet World Stats indicates that about 15% of Africa's population has access to the Internet. With half of Africa's population under the age of 15, technology will need to play a huge role in how we both educate and employ the next generation of Africans. The way business is conducted in future will change dramatically. Technology alone is not a panacea to the continent's varied woes. But it is critically important to addressing them.
Just one exciting development on our continent. In Nigeria, Jason Njoku took advantage of growing Internet connectivity to make the country's prolific 'Nollywood' entertainment catalogue available online. His iROKOtv platform — the 'Netflix of Africa' — now delivers content to more than 500,000 customers worldwide, making his company the world's largest distributor of Nollywood films via the internet.
A South African example of ICT entrepreneurship. It’s about Rapelang Rabana, founding member and CEO of Yeigo Communications, one of the first companies in the world to offer VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services for mobile phones. Yeigo allows users who have downloaded the application to speak to each other, absolutely free.
Rapelang Rabana wasted no time in founding Yeigo Communications right after graduating. Her bachelor's degree in Business Science and honours in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town and her relentless perseverance provided her with the perfect tools to build a high-tech startup. The first recognition came when she won the Enabilis Business Plan competition in 2006 and she has since been selected as an Endeavour high-impact entrepreneur. When Yeigo became a partner of the Swiss Telfree Group of Companies she was made global head of research and development.
Her most recent innovation is ReKindle Learning, a mobile learning application that is set to change the way we transfer knowledge and think about education.
In January 2013 the 28-year-old entrepreneur was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper and was invited to the annual meeting of the forum at Davos, a prestigious event that found her in the company of the president of Ethiopia, the founder of the forum, Prof Klaus Schwab, and the founder of Grameen Bank, Mohammed Yunus. She was listed by Forbes as one of 30 under 30 Best Young African Entrepreneurs, she's made Oprah's 2012 O Power List and she has even been called the "South African Marissa Mayer" - Chief Executive of Yahoo! - a businesswoman, interestingly, she admires for "the ability to close the gap between imagination and reality".
It reflects the government’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for the rollout of broadband infrastructure and the production of associated content, applications and services. It does this by indicating possible adjustments to the structure of the industry and the institutional framework necessary for effective regulation of an open and fair competitive environment.
Furthermore, it encourages public and private investment in the broadband network extension required to meet the social and economic needs of the country.
Simply put, “SA Connect” is based on four pillars. Digital readiness, the first, aims to ensure that we remove policies that constrain the competitiveness of the market. We welcome the decision by Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to examine the state of competition in the ICT sector. For too long now many role-players have made unheard of profits, at the expense of our citizens.
I understand that ICASA will ask stakeholders in the industry to provide feedback on its inquiry before holding public hearings. This will, I understand, lead to a draft position paper, which will also be subject to public comment before a final paper is produced. It will be good if you participate in this process.
Digital development, the second pillar of our Broadband policy, aims to pool public sector demand for broadband in order to facilitate the smart procurement of high-quality broadband connectivity and services to address public sector broadband needs. Currently, there are numerous programmes and agencies spread across government that manage the rollout of broadband. We want to have a more coherent effort to ensure that public sector demand is optimised.
Digital Future, the third pillar, includes the Minister of Communications considering the viability and competitive impact of the introduction of open access wholesale fibre and wireless broadband networks. We are working on a detailed roadmap on how this will be achieved and how the rationalised State-Owned Companies together with existing private networks and new investors can be voluntarily incorporated into a multiplayer entity that work towards a network of networks with shared infrastructure that enables service-based competition.
Digital opportunity, the fourth pillar, deals with interventions that will stimulate demand through the e-readiness programmes in schools and clinics, formal skills development in curricula and general awareness and e-literacy campaigns. The high-level skills required by the sector, and the user skills necessary for social and economic inclusion will be targeted in schools, universities and community access centres to secure and create work.
There will be an alignment of broadband initiatives with other government department programmes in R&D, innovation and entrepreneurialism. Just last month we launched the Ikamva National e-Skills Institute. We have a national e-skills plan of action that provides a platform for all stakeholders, including business, to take part in towards improving our country’s e-readiness rankings. This will lead to an improvement in South Africa’s competitiveness rankings globally.
So this, very briefly, even crudely, in the limited time allocated, is “SA Connect”. Let’s all work together to implement it swiftly and effectively.
