H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of. Uganda. H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of. Senegal

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1 SMART AFRICA AGENDA SMART AFRICA BOARD MEMBERS H.E. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Republic of Gabon H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit President of the Republic of South Sudan H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya H.E. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, President of the Republic of Mali H.E. Idriss Déby President of the Republic of Chad H.E. Michel Kafando Interim President of Faso H.E. Alassane Ouattara President of the Republic of Ivory Coast Houlin Zhao Secretary General of the ITU Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim (Mrs) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, African Union

2 INTRODUCTION The Transform Africa Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda on 28th-31st October 2013 culminated in the adoption of the Smart Africa Manifesto document by 7 African Heads of States in which they committed to provide leadership in accelerating socio-economic development through ICT s. On 30th-31st January 2014, The SMART Africa Manifesto was endorsed by all Heads of State and Government of the African Union at the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa. This development places the Manifesto at the heart of the ICT agenda in Africa beyond just the 7 original signatories at the Summit to all the 53 African countries. SMART AFRICA ALLIANCE The Alliance is a framework for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the SMART Africa Manifesto, designed to make it actionable. Currently, the Alliance is a partnership bringing together all African countries adhering to the Manifesto represented by the AU, the ITU, World Bank, AfDB, ECA, the GSMA, ICANN and the Private Sector. Besides its initial membership, other organizations and countries sharing the same vision, interests and goals will be admitted to the Alliance. 2 PILLARS OF SMART AFRICA The SMART Africa has 5 pillars which reflect the 5 principles of the Smart Africa Manifesto. These pillars are (1) Policy, (2) Access, (3) e-government, (4) Private Sector/Entrepreneurship and (5) Sustainable Development. SMART AFRICA ENABLERS The pillars mentioned above are built on four, cross-cutting enablers which will support the implementation of SMART Africa. These enablers are (1) Innovation; (2) Communications and Advocacy; (3) Capacity Building; and (4) Resource Mobilization. The 5 pillars and 4 enablers when effectively developed and combined will contribute to Economic Growth and Job creation, which remains the ultimate goal of the Smart Africa Manifesto. PARTNERS TAS2015 SMART AFRICA AGENDA 2 REPUBLI

3 FLAGSHIP PROJECTS The initial set of priorities defined during the SMART Africa Alliance partner s meeting is discussed in brief below. Detailed Concept Notes, Action Plans and Budgets for each of the initiatives mentioned below will be developed by the Smart Africa Task Force staff. 1 The SMART Africa Scholarship Fund Lack of skilled manpower is a binding constraint to realizing and sustaining any economic development gains. The Transform Africa Scholarship will aim to build the much-needed ICT capacity on the continent. The idea is to mobilize the necessary financial resources to selected students pursuing globally-benchmarked, industry-rated skills Masters or Industry Certifications at Centers of Excellence within Africa. The initiative will aim to increase the number of advanced (Masters-level) and specialized (Certification) level ICT Engineers. The approach will be to mobilize resources for the Transform Africa Scholarship Fund and provide scholarships to African students to help them pursue Master s and Certification- level training at the continent s best ICT Centers of Excellence. 2 Youth Innovation and Job Creation The project will among others, support the creation of innovation and co-working spaces for young digital entrepreneurs, The project will fund Hackathons (through App contests and competitions) and promote local innovations to turn into successful business ventures for other markets. The project will also help the youth with mid-level digital skills to earn wages through offshore services, such as information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO), crowd sourcing. It will also help them tap into micro work opportunities, which offers task-oriented opportunities for data entry, coding, tagging and other text-based tasks. 3 SMART AFRICA AGENDA TAS2015

4 3 SMART Africa ICT Industry Development Local Internet Industry Today s economies are becoming increasingly dependent on Internet based resources through online applications and services. Localizing critical Internet infrastructure is therefore a necessary step to building a robust domestic Internet ecosystem and economy. This project will help create key facilities such as National and Regional Internet exchange points and root name servers. This will spur the creation of new types of businesses such as local content services, data back-up, local streaming media, and mobile apps. Techpreneurs and young innovators will have a real opportunity to create and grow Internet-based industry through products and services that meet local needs and create new global possibilities. Cloud Computing African governments are confronted with a multitude of needs ranging from food security through provision of social needs to investing in social and economic infrastructure, all competing for constrained budget. ICT investment in the traditional CAPEX model is no longer a viable approach. The Cloud Computing project will help give to Africa an opportunity to adopt technology as an affordable operation expense by sharing existing technologies made available virtually, through the cloud. African Governments will devise and implement their Cloud Computing strategies to achieve economies of scale, increase efficiency of their ICT systems, reduce operational issues, reallocate scarce resources to priority sectors and adopt new technologies faster. Local ICT Manufacturing Industry For far too long, Africa has been a consumer more than a producer of ICTs. This contributes significantly to the negatively balance of trade of the continent. The objective of the project is to enable qualified countries on the continent to competitively establish plants to manufacture mobile phones, tablets, laptops TAS2015 SMART AFRICA AGENDA 4

5 and other ICT equipments for local consumption and for exports to African markets. Smart Devices Africa now has the highest rates of growth in mobile broadband growth in the world standing at 82% ahead of Arab states 55%, Europe 33%, Americas 28% and Asia and the Pacific 22%. Despite these developments, the continent remains behind in terms of Mobile broadband-enabled device penetration compared to other continents. This is majorly because the cost of smart devices remain prohibitive among many Africans especially those in the underserved segments. Very few Africans can afford to purchase smart devices by paying upfront. The project will aim to increase the proliferation of affordable smart devices i.e. broadband capable, smart phones, tablets and laptops on the continent through innovative loan scheme arrangements that assist credit-worthy students, public and private sector employees, farmers and business people pay in installments. The project will among others use countries Universal Access Funds to act as guarantee for low interest rate loans to be issued by Development Banks to enable distributors acquire devices from manufacturers. 4 SMART Rural/SMART Cities (m-cities) The project will aim to integrate shared ICT infrastructure and services into management and provision of critical public utilities and services in rural and urban setting to achieve smart energy, smart transport, smart water and sanitation, smart social services, smart environment and smart agglomeration. As a matter of priority, the project will leverage innovative public private partnership models involving Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), city and local government administrations to provide affordable broadband connectivity to the citizenry. All major commercial markets, public spaces, buses and bus parks, libraries, schools, hospitals and public buildings will provide affordable or free broadband connectivity. 5 SMART AFRICA AGENDA TAS2015

6 5 SMART Africa Digital Economy Local Content Globally, there are 94 domains registered per users. However, in Africa, there is only one domain per users. As such, there is tremendous potential for growth on the continent in the web space. Africans want their own content, content that is by them and for them. The project will aim to increase the amount of exciting and informative content from evocative music, drama, documentaries, and arts to educative and informative content and put it online. Services Africa is steadfastly becoming a source of disruptive technology innovations and richness of creative talents. Evidence of this is nowhere more prevalent than in the successful experience of M-Pesa. The project will focus on development and proliferation of utility providing killer apps that will address the financial, business, healthcare, education needs of the continent. Big Data With an increasing proliferation of broadband, the African continent will continue to produce massive, unstructured amounts of data. The data will originate from various sources including cell phones, maps, social media, video, audio historical, imagery, sensors and much more. This project will assist African governments make the most of emerging big data analytics to serve citizens and businesses better. Big data will help government achieve efficiency in crime prevention, transportation, defense, national security, revenue management, environmental protection and social services. Digital Payments In most of Africa, only a negligible percentage of upper-income households enjoy the convenience of card-based, online, and mobile banking and payments, TAS2015 SMART AFRICA AGENDA 6

7 while most consumers still pay with cash. The project will aim to increase the penetration and use of digitalpayment among consumers, banks, and governments in order to reduce the high cost of cash payments costs associated with manual acceptance, record keeping, counting, storage, security, and transportation. Cyber Security While the advent of high speed Internet brings unprecedented opportunities to Africa it also poses a serious challenge. The global networks which the continent is increasingly relying upon to conduct business, run government and socialize are prone to advanced and repeated cyber attacks. To fully realize ICT benefits, there must be full confidence that information and communication systems are secure and dependable. The project will aim to increase the level of cyber security awareness and protect key ICT assets against attacks. It will build African capabilities to respond to attacks as well as foster international cooperation on cyber security. More importantly, it will facilitate the creation of a legal and regulatory environment to mitigate cyber vulnerabilities. 6 SMART Africa Green Economy Computers, electronic devices and ICT infrastructure consume significant amounts of power, placing a heavy burden on electric grids and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Africa has vast amounts of outdated ICT equipment, which pose serious environmental consequences if not disposed of properly. Furthermore most processes in African government and private sector are paper-based, which is not only costly but also negatively impacts the environment. This project aims to leverage ICTs in environmental management and conservation, and implement initiatives to reduce e-waste and enable efficient energy generation, consumption and distribution. The project will support African countries to develop policy promoting the use of online e- Government applications; establish mechanisms to recycle and refurbish old computers and other ICT hardware; promote the adoption of SMART Grid technologies; Increase awareness and sensitization around green ICTs. 7 SMART AFRICA AGENDA TAS2015

8 7 Digital Literacy for Africa Significant investments made into ICT infrastructure, content and services, and the increasing proliferation of smart devices need to be matched by investments into digital literacy if the continent is to maximize the opportunities presented by ICT s. The initiative will aim to make Africa the most digital literate continent by 2018 through training and certification in ICT literacy of its economically active population. The initiative will be a Public Private Partnership (PPP) bringing together Governments, Private Training/ Research institutions and financial institutions. The targeted beneficiaries are all civil servants, students at tertiary institutions and secondary schools. The initiative will provide a significant business opportunity for local SME s providing ICT training on the continent. The ICT Literacy initiative will reap significant benefits including increased African workforce productivity and efficiency; achievement of knowledgebased economies due to proliferation of more highly skilled jobs; e-government, e-learning, and e-commerce will be facilitated; increased attraction of foreign direct investment; increased opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, and greater demand for IT products. 8 SMART Africa Data Measurement for Development The demand for good-quality data continues is always on demand. Timely and reliable data are essential if we are to achieve the socio-economic development goals of the African continent. It helps set baselines, identify relevant actions, set goals and targets, monitor progress and evaluate impacts. The project will support the collection, analysis and measurement of Data for Development to facilitate evidence-based and data-driven decision and policymaking by helping African countries develop globally acceptable standards, norms and methods. This project also intends to improve the countries capacity, efficiency and effectiveness to capture meaningful data, improve the approaches to performance measurement and evaluation, and enhance our ability to identify effective and efficient policy interventions in all sector of the economy, using ICT tools and databases. PARTNERS REPUBLIC OF CHAD REPUBLIC OF IVORYCOAST