ventures-africa.com - VENTURES AFRICA – 

Since the turn of the 21st century, Africa’s has seemingly become more aware of the potentials of ICT and have improved the willingness to receive the innovative concept into almost every fragment of its society. From finance, through communication and education, to agriculture and commerce, Africans are reaping the rewards of this embrace as ICT is gradually reshaping its socio-economic landscape. This, Stanley Jegede, the CEO of Phase 3 Telecom, an emerging Nigerian fibre-optic service provider, believes is no where near its climax.

In an interview with Ventures Africa, Stanley tracks the rapid growth of the ICT sector over the last 10 years, and its underestimated impact of African living. “ICT has always been critical to African growth. It is a prerequisite for the economic success of any developing country and our ability to thrive in a global economy depends on our ICT infrastructure and policies as well as how well we implement these policies,” he notoriously asserts.

Why has ICT suddenly become critical to Africa’s economic progress?

On the contrary, Information and Communication Technology hasn’t suddenly become critical to Africa’s economic growth. According to the World Bank, a 10% growth in broadband access results in 1.4% growth in GDP. We may just be waking up to the correlation between ICT development and its growth, but it has been integral for a few decades. The problem is that historically, we have lacked the infrastructure to enable it, something that has changed in the last few years. With numerous undersea cables delivering significant IP to Africa’s shores, and our own efforts ensuring the distribution of that IP nationally and regionally the true effect of IT on development can now be felt.

photo CC by Michael Coghlan