FEATURE: INTELLIGENT DISCUSSIONS

Africa is a continent known for its innovation and creativity; however, the region lacks the same digital infrastructure as seen throughout other parts of the world. With 600 million people across Africa without access to electricity in 2024, we now need to look into 2025 and the future to assess what needs to change. infrastructure inequality. Sub-saharan Africa and other underprivileged areas across the continent are part of a huge divide. Urban areas have 4 / 5G mobile network coverage, fiber-optic broadband coverage and seamless access to electricity. Whereas in rural areas, they are often completely unserved by any networks and have limited access to electricity.

Dr. Mpofu noted that in the villages where he grew up, there is no connectivity.“ You cannot use your phone anywhere – not even to call an ambulance,” he said.“ When you come from a rural area, you understand what they go through.”

We heard contributions from Dr. Stanley Mpofu, CIO, University of Witwatersrand; Anathi Mtila, Manager, Cyber Defense, MTN Group South Africa; Zethu Lubisi, Acting ICT Manager: Planning and Governance, University of Witwatersrand; Trishen Moodley, Executive Head: Information Technology, MAST; Dr. Makaziwe Makamba, Director for Digital Transformation, NSG; and David Reynders, CTO, Merchant Capital.

With their valuable input, each from a range of diverse backgrounds and expertise, we explored the transformative impact of technology on the African continent.

Barriers to digital infrastructure development

One of the biggest barriers to accelerating digital infrastructure development throughout Africa is

This stunts the development of digital infrastructure in these regions. It prohibits usage, innovation and contribution from those in rural areas. This in turn creates a cycle whereby providers have little incentive to expand into these deprived areas due to poor return on investment.

Lack of concentration becomes a major barrier here. There is simply no business sense for private organisations to develop these low-density areas. The low populous, dissipated regions around Africa serve no use to companies who can set up shop elsewhere, such as a busy city centre.

It always comes down to price. Many in lower-income areas would need to spend a great deal of their little money on devices, and even then, mobile data costs in Africa are some of the highest globally. This combination results in very low network usage, with 27 % active users while 87 % are covered – the highest usage gap in the world. This, in turn, limits profits for any hopeful businesses looking to expand into rural areas, making it an unviable investment.

“ The solution is to fix the basic availability problem,” said Reynders. There is currently a lack of investment by the government into plans or start-ups who can aid in creating digital equity across the continent. Governments need to be the ones making assertive actions as the private companies have no incentive to reach out to the rural areas.

34 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com