The World Bank Group has announced that it expects to double its commitment to information and communication technologies (ICT) in Africa to 2 billion U.S. dollars by 2012.
The funds will be channeled through its three financing arms, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, said Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President at the opening ceremony of Connect Africa Summit held here Monday.
The financing will continue to promote private sector participation, while supporting public private partnerships to address market gaps, with an emphasis on affordable high speed Internet, Zoellick said.
In the past 10 years, more than 25 billion dollars have been invested in Sub-Sahara Africa, mostly by the private sector, representing about one third of all foreign direct investment to the region.
In particular, mobile telephony is a remarkable success story in Africa, largely due to the opening up of the ICT markets throughout Africa.
The challenge now is to replicate the achievement in mobile telephony by also attracting major investment for broadband Internet connectivity, Zoellick said, adding that as of today, less than 1 percent of Africa's population has access to high speed connectivity compared to over 30 percent in many countries.
"This access gap must be addressed before Africa can be connected to the globalized economy and use ICT to improve public services, overcome poverty, and enable regional integration," he said.
World Bank financing will support partnerships between governments and businesses in order to help fill gaps not being addressed by the market, especially for connectivity of rural areas and small towns, Zoellick said.
The recently approved 424 million dollars Regional Communications Infrastructure Program will support governments of up to 25 East and Southern African countries to partner with private telecom operators to jointly invest in infrastructure for high speed Internet, he said.
IFC financing will continue to support private sector African companies in telecoms and IT, as well as major infrastructure projects such as the Eastern African Submarine Cable Systems.
IFC will also encourage investments in new applications such as mobile banking. Such innovative use of technology has tremendous opportunity to deliver social and financial services, especially in rural areas, Zoellick said.
InfoDev, a multi-donor partnership housed in the World Bank, will continue to support the creation of knowledge products and capacity building for Africa, Zoellick added.
The Connect Africa Summit aims to secure concrete commitments from private sector, governments and development financial institutions to ensure all African capitals and major cities are connected to high speed Internet by 2012.
Source:Xinhua
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