AU warns against cyber-exploitation of African countries
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) – The African Union (AU) has warned countries in Africa to guard against misuse by foreign multinationals hunting for profits and immediately implement a digital strategy, which aims to narrow the gap caused by the lack of universal access to the internet, a tool for trade.
AU Commissioner for Energy and Infrastructure, Amani Abou-Zeid, said Tuesday that reforms aiming to improve cyber security and to enhance the use of the information, communication and technology tools across Africa have been initiated by the continental body despite the massive gaps which still exist.
“Africa should not be used as a front for the rest of the world to harness profits based on the development of technology,” Abou-Zeid said during the launch of the Africa Data Leadership Initiative (ADLI).
The ADLI is a network of governmental organisations, policy-makers and consumer rights bodies, seeking to drive an internet economy in Africa in order to reduce poverty and spur economic growth.
UN Economic Commission for Africa Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, said the importance of the Information and Communication Technologies to the global economy was emphasized by the fact that top 10 companies of the world were mostly based on the digital technology sector.
Microsoft, manufacturers of computer software, is one of the world’s largest business enterprises alongside Apple, a computer hardware company, International Business Machines (IBM), Amazon, an electronic trading platform, Alibaba, also an electronic trader based in China and Facebook.
“The fact that the world’s largest companies are based on the ICT sector emphasizes the importance of ICT tools,” Songwe in brief remarks during the launch of the ADLI, partly sponsored by the ECA, Smart Africa and Future State, with the aim of helping to grow the African digital economy footprint.
The ECA official said the current outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic had further emphasized the need for more investments in the ICT sector.
She said not only does countries need to emphasise the importance of ICT ministries alone but nearly all government sectors, including health and education, now required massive ICT investments.
In an effort to respond to the growing digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world, with only 22% of its population able to access the internet, the World Bank estimated US$100 billion would be required to boost the broadband internet connection in Africa.
The World Bank pledged it would invest US$25 billion in Africa from May 2020 until 2030 to help the AU to implement its “Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa,” which aims at improving ICT laws, regulations and to drive digital and electronic trade.
In 2017, electronic-commerce accounted for 12 per cent of global trade in goods, according to the International Trade Centre. The ITC estimated that the market size of e-commerce would reach US$50billion in 2018 from US$8billion in 2013, while McKinsey, a global strategy consulting firm, projects the value of e-commerce will reach US$300billion by 2025.
“New technologies give access to markets that were previously closed and removes distortions in demand by giving customers direct access to products previously controlled,” the AU said in its Digital transformation strategy.
Experts who attended the virtual launch of the Africa Data Leadership Initiative said a single piece of data generates value and the information currently held by state agencies could be better used to develop good strategies and policies required to improve public service.
The availability of new data from across Africa since 2010, saw Nigeria emerge as Africa’s largest economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) size of US$397 billion compared to South Africa’s US$366 billion, Angola’s US$105 billion and Kenya ranking fourth largest economy in Africa at US$87 billion according to the World Bank.
African countries lose an average of US$3.5 billion through computer crimes every year, said the Director-General of Smart Africa, Lacina Kone.
He said to avoid exploitation and dependence on foreign data centres, African countries must invest in building internet connections across their land territories.
“We do not want to be colonized again through ICT,” Kone said.
-0- PANA AO/VAO 6Oct2020
