an Eldis Resource
Costing the needs for investment in ICT infrastructure in Africa
Integrating Africa in the global economy through ICT infrastructure development
Authors:
R Mayer; Winrock International
Publisher:
EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund, 2008
Substantial investments in information and communications technology (ICT) and related infrastructure will be made through 2015 to meet market demand for telecommunications services in 24 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, the authors identify the amount of investment in voice and broadband infrastructure to achieve universal coverage and market-driven demand through to 2015, as well as the investment needed to improve connectivity across the continent. Apart from this, they highlight the fact that within each country, policy makers have an equally important role to play in promoting market entry through operator licensing and spectrum liberalization.
Key points made:
• To ensure universal voice connectivity in the 24 AICD countries, and to operate and maintain that infrastructure, would require an average annual investment equivalent to 0.09 percent of the combined GDP of the 24 countries. This equates to $646.7 million each year, or a total of $5.8 billion from 2007 through 2015.
• Policy makers in most countries can expect that voice infrastructure will cover 95 percent of their population by 2015—provided they promote effective competition and mobilize private sector resources.
• To create the broadband infrastructure needed to provide universal coverage, an investment equivalent to 0.1 percent of GDP would be required through 2015—translating to $6.0 billion for the 24 countries, or an average of $752.4 million per year from 2008 through 2015.
• By the end of the forecast period, broadband penetration is expected to reach a regional level of 2.5 broadband lines per 100 inhabitants across the AICD countries—a 63-fold increase from the 2006 level of 0.04 lines per 100 inhabitants
• Grossly under-resourced at the supranational level, Africa’s communications infrastructure is sorely in need of investment. The problem reflects both poor intra-regional connectivity and insufficient undersea cables connecting Africa to other areas of the world and to the rich information resources of the global Internet. The fundamental issue is to complete the network of submarine cables surrounding the continent to ensure that all coastal countries have access to the inter-continental network.
• Without cooperation between governments (in Africa and elsewhere) and investors, however, the total cost could rise quite steeply, and the outcomes of any investment might be used inefficiently, if not wasted.
