<h1 class="title">Africa should just stop whining!</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/05/04/africa-should-just-stop-whining">http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/05/04/africa-should-just-stop-whining</a><br>By <a href="http://www.computerworld.co.ke/users/rebecca-wanjiku" title="View user profile.">Rebecca Wanjiku</a><br>
4 May, 2009 </div>
<p>It
is considered automatic that Africa lags behind all other continents in
technology adoption. So, whenever there is an international meeting
African representatives find a story to tell; the digital divide.</p>
<p>It has become so bad that leaders just fail to do the right things
and just blame it on the digital divide. The government heads fail to
adopt technology and blame it on the digital divide.</p>
<p>Some Africa representatives attend meetings and instead of striking
collaborative deals to benefit their countries; they are busy shopping
or just filling numbers in the meeting rooms. And when you ask, they
blame it on the digital divide.</p>
<p>I recall there was this guy who represented his country at the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meetings
for three years, and during the time, he did not share any outcome or
notes from the meeting with technology forums.</p>
<p>It was embarrassing that at one point, a senior government officer
attended one of the technology related meetings and had no clue that hi
country was represented within ICANN.</p>
<p>The representative had just been attending meetings and not even
sharing with the tech community or government officers on the
recommendations and outcomes of such meetings.</p>
<p>What would you call that? The digital divide? </p>
<p>There is no doubt that there exists a gap between developing countries and developed countries within ICANN.</p>
<p>This gap is specifically manifested when it comes to Africa
delegates, they hardly contribute meaningfully to the public forums.
ICANN deals with the names and numbers, the technical aspects but
Africa is still grappling with elementary issues such as access and
policy issues.</p>
<p>For instance; when the business group is discussing issues of
e-commerce and the amount of information that should be availed online
or whether the security agents should be given such information, how
does someone with no e-commerce in their country contribute to the
debate?</p>
<p>But does that mean that Africa has no place in international
technology meetings? Why then does Africa fail to take advantage of
some of the opportunities? </p>
<p>At a recent technology conference, Maua Daftari,Tanzania's Deputy
Minister in charge of science and technology expressed her fear that if
the Conficker worm hits Africa, it might wipe out the few steps made.</p>
<p>What was confusing was that I did not hear her say what Tanzania is
doing to promote use of open source technology, if the the reliance on
Microsoft products poses the danger she was quoting.</p>
<p>In some cases, innovative youth ventures have been stifled by uninformed officers heading important government heads.</p>
<p>I recall last year, I had an interview with Laban Mwangi, one of
Kenya's most progressive and innovative techie. He shared his
frustrations in trying to convince mobile phone companies in Kenya to
adopt his point of sale gadget by selling to him airtime in wholesale,
which he can then sell to traders in remote areas through his gadget.
The idea was shared with the power and lighting company among other
important service providers. </p>
<p>With the gadget, Mwangi wanted people to sell airtime from any
company, pay water and electricity bills among other services. His
attempts did not bear much fruit then.</p>
<p>You can imagine my shock when I entered one of the corner shops in
London earlier this year and found that they use Mwangi's concept.</p>
<p>So, Mwangi failed to get them to adopt his technology but do not be
shocked if a few years down the line, you hear that one company has
been awarded a huge contract to supply what Mwangi would have supplied
at a fraction. If we adopted that technology last year; we would have
been far by now.</p>
<p>So, it is clear that Africa's appreciation of young techie minds is
lacking, technocrats have specialized in attending meetings and their
technology vision is blurred and most of all; we have mastered the art
of whining.</p>
<p>We should just get the solutions and stop that digital divide song,
how come Africa does not talk of the digital divide when it comes to
military hardware and other state-of-the art warfare gadgets?</p>
<p>How comes African militaries have one of the highest budgets and are
quick to adopt latest technology? Does that mean there is no digital
divide in military terms?</p>
<p>I think Africa should just stop whining and act!</p>