By Xinhua
Kigali (Rwanda) : The World Bank has announced that it will double its commitment to information and communication technology (ICT) in Africa to $2 billion by 2012.
The funds will be channelled 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 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 have been invested in Sub-Saharan Africa, mostly by the private sector, representing about one third of all foreign direct investment in the region.
In particular, mobile telephony is a remarkable success story in Africa, largely due to the opening up of the ICT markets throughout the continent.
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 one 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 globalised 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 Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme 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 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, he added.