By George Arrey Agbor (Originally published in Cameroon Post Monday, April 05, 2010)
Experts in Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs, drawn from some countries across the world have agreed that ICTs are not only necessary but important to stir development in Africa.
Cross Section of ICT Conference Participants
This was the overriding outcome of an international conference on ICT for Africa that held recently at the Djeuga Palace Hotel in Yaounde. The conference which was jointly organised by the Southern University, USA and the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Buea was placed under the theme: "ICT for Development - Contributions from the South."
Welcoming participants at the conference, the Vice Dean of Social and Management Sciences of the University of Buea, Professor Enoh Tanjong, said the aim of the conference was to amalgamate the northern and southern scholars and for them to share their knowledge with budding scholars from the south. Prof. Tanjong maintained that countries of the south should not only be in the periphery as far as ICTs are concerned but that they should be at the centre of the evolving technology. He related that ICTs can help journalists in remote areas meet up with deadlines.
The conference Chair and Executive Director of International Centre for Information Technology and Development, ICITD, Southern University, Prof. Victor Mbarika, said Africa is facing a lot of problems and challenges as far as use of ICTs is concerned. He declared that African problems cannot only be reduced to lack of roads, food, water, electricity, etc; but that there is a real need for ICT's in Africa today for the continent to develop.
He maintained that Africa missed the train during the industrial revolution and cannot afford to miss the ICT revolution. He also advised African governments to come out with policies that will favour the investment of foreign companies in the domain of ICTs on the continent. Prof. Mbarika declared that his institution is ready to help African governments in the training of human resources in the domain of ICT at the Masters and PhD levels.
Officially opening the conference, the Chancellor of the Makerere Business School, Uganda, Prof. Waswa Balunywa, said ICTs will serve as a level playing ground for Africa in order for them to be competitive in the market. While saluting the initiative of the organisers of the conference, he declared that ICTs can help to resolve the problem of issuing of visas on the continent. He said it is unacceptable that to come to Cameroon, one must first get a visa from Ethiopia when ICTs could have done the magic. Prof. Balunywa said Africa has a problem of lecturers but with the use of ICTs in our university system, one lecturer can supervise even one thousand students at a time.
The climax of the conference came with the launching of The ICT University and the first ever African Society for ICTs on March 27. Cameroon was chosen as the springboard of these two projects. African research students on ICTs came from Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, etc. The students are being directed by Prof. Mbarika.
The conference was sponsored by the USA based National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the Louisiana Board of Regents.
The main objective of the conference was to highlight the synergy of collaboration between African countries and others for the development of the former. Workshops for the conference also explore international grant seeking opportunities for ICT research and projects, e-learning for African universities and new frontiers in telemedicine and tele-neonatology and practice in Africa.
