A glance at the sheer size of Africa’s population tells us that it has the potential to become a massively influential market in global telecoms. A glance at its social and economic history tells us equally that this is not likely to happen any time soon.

The result is a tragedy. So many of the problems with which Africa is cursed could be addressed in part by the introduction of and access to information and communications technology. All the hip tele- applications – tele-medicine, tele-learning and so on – could bring so much more in the way of benefit to people living in the conditions experienced in most of Africa than to their counterparts in the vastly more privileged corners of the developed world.

It is conventional to blame a post-colonial hangover for this state of affairs. This is true, but only to a limited extent. Of course, national markets in Africa still tend to be dominated by suppliers located in the countries of their past colonial masters. Language is an obvious reason for this, as are relationships dating back perhaps 50 years when it comes to network provision.

Nor is the patronising attitude adopted by western suppliers to African operators much of a help. For nearly three decades of digitalisation in the developed world, surplus analogue equipment was routinely sent to the African continent, where operators were expected to be growth. One African telecom minister asked of me not so long ago, “why do they keep sending us this useless stuff?” He didn’t actually use the word ‘stuff’.

This practice is rapidly diminishing, but even in the terms applied to vendor finance there is a sense of exploitation when major suppliers approach African markets. They act like loan sharks and, faced with few alternatives, the African telecom administrations are often forced to acquiesce.

Home-grown
Yet to lay all of the ills at the door of the First World would be a mistake. The mismanagement of telecoms by Africa’s governments is legendary. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, telecom was a licence to print money thanks to the prevailing imbalances of the international accounting rate system. Under pressure, notably from the United States, that stream of dollar revenue has largely dried up.

This shifted the attention of African governments to the licensing of alternative fixed and mobile carriers. This might be described as ‘corrupt’, but only if we also accept that 3G licensing in markets such as the UK and Germany was ‘corrupt’. Even so, while the corrupt verdict may be an instance of double standards, too many African states have done too little to ensure that licensing and regulatory conditions are transparent.

With so much pent-up demand, and so much potential benefit to be gained from unleashing that demand, the situation is crucial. If western operators and suppliers continue to collude in this state of affairs, the situation will remain negligent to an almost criminal extent.

In Africa, that translates into human suffering to the shame of us all.

Rights, wrongs and Richter scales
Tectonix scale/short term: 1/10. Hoped-for improvements still stymied by dysfunctional commercial climate and a colonial attitude (on both sides) to FDI.
Tectonix scale/mid term: 2/10. Targeted development funding and limited economic reform begin help matters.
Tectonix scale/long term: 4/10. Status as the sole remaining unexploited market, with more mature conditions, kicks in.
Jim Chalmers

Tomorrow: the EU is caught on the cusp of conservatism and a new mood of expansion.