Maravi

ICT policy is long overdue

ICT policy is long overdue
By Editor
Wednesday March 28, 2007 [02:00]

ALTHOUGH it is widely acknowledged that the information and communications sectors play an important role in economic development, there has been very slow progress on our part as a country to work on a policy that should give direction in terms of how we can fully benefit from the information and communications technologies (ICTs).

While we laud today’s launch of our first-ever ICT policy, we think that we should have moved a little faster. We are saying this because we know that Zambia, like most sub-Saharan African countries, is confronted with some of the most daunting economic, social and political challenges, some of which could be addressed by taking advantage of ICTs.

What is sad is that even when we know the benefits of fully actualising the potential from ICTs, we as a country have basically dragged our feet to ensure that a comprehensive policy is put in place. Yes, we note the progress that has been recorded so far in expanding the reach of basic and new ICT services and applications.

However, we are also aware that the majority of the population still does not have access to basic telephone services, computers, let alone access to internet services. And there is a wide and uneven disparity along the fault lines of social inequality such as socio-economic status, age, gender, geographic location and ethnicity. This is so in Zambia while other countries such as South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco have developed their ICT infrastructure to competitive levels.

But there are numerous reasons why people’s access to ICTs needs to be expanded. And that cannot be achieved in the absence of a comprehensive ICT policy. This is why we think that the ICT policy is in fact long overdue.

First of all, we need to understand that access to information forms the basis for creating an information society. Therefore, the availability of public access points, ICT tools, content and services are as important as the information itself in the deployment and exploitation of ICTs to support rural development, community-based initiatives and projects in Zambia’s developmental effort.

Therefore, we need a policy that will direct its efforts at promoting the use of ICTs in rural, urban and underserved communities and ensuring that the net effect of the developmental gains resulting from ICTs does have a widespread impact at all levels in both rural and urban areas.

Broadly speaking, ICT infrastructure encompasses telecommunications networks; radio and TV transmission systems; the Internet and other multimedia delivery platforms.
With respect to ICTs, lack of a reliable, widely distributed and high capacity network for data, voice (sound) and video (pictures) has greatly contributed to the low availability and penetration of ICT services as well as costly deployment of basic services especially in rural areas. We expect that the policy will reverse this.

We are aware that many governments around the world are already taking advantage of e-government. Let it be understood that the government machinery is normally viewed through institutions making up the public sector; and plays an important role in the nation’s development process. The government in the past has not done well to deploy and exploit ICTs to facilitate the process of bringing its programmes closer to the people.

The purpose of transforming government through ICTs should be done so as to realise efficiency gains, reduce operational and administrative costs as well as streamline government processes and procedures. We hope the government is truly aware that the potential benefits that shall be derived from the implementation of e-government are enormous. People should certainly favour a policy that puts e-government on the front line.

Furthermore, global communication networks such as the Internet, are rapidly removing the traditional barriers of time and distance, which are key components influencing commerce and trade. Such technologies provide users, organisations and businesses in both the developed and developing countries with numerous opportunities including setting up ‘virtual’ shops to market and advertise business activities to the rest of the world at a very minimal cost. The policy should, therefore, put emphasis on the development of e-commerce, which at present is less appreciated.


It is not an ambiguous fact that agriculture is the economic backbone for many Zambians especially in rural areas; as such it plays an important role in the social and economic development of the country. It is also the focus of diversification efforts to our economy. If integrated well in the agricultural sector reform process, ICT will serve as an important tool for market and weather information and contribute to the social and economic revival of the country.

It is also known that the performance of the health delivery system, especially in the rural areas, has over the years been affected by communication problems mainly due to distances between health delivery points and administrative centres.

We are aware that efforts have been made to introduce tele-medicine or tele-health, where medical consultation and administration can be done in rural areas using ICT. This cannot only deal with the problem of poor staffing levels in the health sector but also extend health and medical services to rural and under-served areas.

We note that key areas of economic development have been incorporated in the national ICT policy. If properly implemented, the end result should be improved quality and a cheaper way of life for Zambians. The critical element, therefore, becomes
implementation of these key components of the policy.

We note that the policy will adopt a unique implementation programme which takes care of, among other things: special ICT programmes, development of incentives and policy instruments; universal human resource development programme; national ICT applications such as e-government, tele-medicine; and creation of an enabling legal or regulatory and institutional framework.

The implementation programme is obviously quite encompassing. We only hope that the co-ordination of these sectors will be strong to avoid any gaps.

We therefore call on all stakeholders such as the government, Parliament, regulators, the private sector, donors, local authorities and civil society to merge their efforts to make Zambia an ICT society using this policy framework.

Labels: EDITORIAL, ICT

posted by MrK @ 4:38 AM