Infostructure

The potential to enhance service delivery, spur economic development and alleviate poverty is all dependent on the creation of a cost effective and efficient information infrastructure – ‘infostructure’ - with the national capabilities and capacity on which to run these enhanced services. As a result, historically, the developmental focus in the ICT sector has been on access, and therefore on the provision of infrastructure. Access to infrastructure is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for sustainable development however. ICTs provide a means rather than an end in itself. The contextual relevance of the information provided and the particular technological tools affect the sustainability of ICT and development initiatives.

As long as Africa has amongst the highest communications costs and most curtailed range of communications services in the world, the potential of ICTs to drive development will not be realised. Affordable access is the key not only to consumer welfare but also to reducing the input costs to business and the underlying costs to any network economy. Special exemption rates for call centre, e-rates for schools and other strategies to overcome the barriers to deploying ICTs in Africa will remain piecemeal solutions that will not contribute to the wider adoption of ICTs as long as the fundamental causes of the high communications charges and limited range of services is not addressed. It is important that those that approve policies or laws understand the limitations of such well-intentioned interventions and are able to push for more sustainable solutions.