Africa moots for joint position on Global technology

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Africa Information and Communications Technology consortia groups, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Uganda Communication Commission – UCC are lobbying all ICT departments across the African continent to come up with a joint position on global technology.

The position agreed upon will be presented before the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva next year. Such position discussed on Tuesday at Golf View Hotel in Entebbe should be in line with the Global ICT standards.

Global ICT standards are developed in many venues and share certain characteristics. They are created through collaborative efforts that have a global reach, are voluntary and widely adopted by the marketplace across national borders.

These standards are developed not only by national-member based international standards bodies but also by consortia groups and other standards-setting organizations (SSOs).

Global ICT standards characteristics such as responding broadly to the needs of global markets, the demonstration of relevance through voluntary worldwide adoption and implementation and, they are all products of standardization processes that are consensus-based, transparent, and industry-led with participation open to any interested party.

Currently, Uganda has up to 25 million Mobile phone subscribers with 15 million of those using smartphones and internet.

The formulation of an African position according to Godfrey Mutabaazi the Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission will enable Africa tackle all the challenges each member country faces relating to ICT.

Some of the challenges hindering ICT development on the African Continent include the lack of sustainability, the currently used technologies in the countries, the lack of ICT knowledge, limited funding of ICT and the increasing pace at which technologies change.

Currently, Uganda through the Ministry of ICT has developed several mechanisms through which such challenges can be addressed.

According to Mutabaazi, gadgets that detect counterfeit phones have already been installed in the country. He indicated that the country is now planning to bar the use of counterfeits so as to improve technology use.

The Director Telecommunications Standardization at the International Telecommunications Union Chaesub Lee says African countries need to jointly evaluate the challenges they face in the telecommunications sector and present them at a global stage for permanent solutions.

Sixteen African countries including Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria and South Africa are attending the African Conference.

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