Page 198 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Executive Summary

3 Conclusions

Main lessons from this case study
It is possible to implement complex projects, which involve making people smarter with limited resources,
even across continents, provided there is a will to do so. It is also possible to implement projects and
programs as a South-South cooperation.
There were also some unintended benefits accrued from the implementation of this project, which were not
initially thought of. One such key advantage observed was that people no longer had to return to India for
follow up with their doctors and hospitals as they could avail of the benefits bestowed by India’s position as
a major tourist destination through the Pan African e-Network. Hence, as most of the leading hospitals of
India are a part of the Pan African e- Network, the patients can now directly follow up with these doctors
from their home countries without spending their precious resources and time for travelling.
Critical success factors
Similar projects, on a smaller scale started elsewhere for smaller nations earlier did not succeed. The Critical
success factors in this case apart from the commitment of various stake holders has been the knowledge of
the mutual pain points and challenges which developing nations on both the sides were able to understand.
Challenges ahead
The project is under expansion to reach to larger sections of the populations in these countries. Government
of India has committed another 160 million USD for this program over the next 5 years. Involving private
stakeholders and also the other cities from the African side is imperative. Success of this program would
depend upon how much the governments in these nations are willing commit.
Transferability to other cities

So far in most of the 48 countries of Africa, it is the capital cities that have benefitted. It is possible to transfer
this concept to the other cities in Africa, where a majority of the people reside, and in fact that would be the
real success of this program in Africa.
Scalability of the project

The program is scalable, both upwards and downwards. It was implemented on a smaller scale in the SAARC
Nations as well. ICT being at the core of this project, it is easily possible to scale it up for extending it to other
cities of these nations in Africa, with a substantial increase in the cost of the project, which some of the
African Nations are willing to themselves bear.
Based on the success of this program, and at the request of the African Union Commission, the Government
of India has decided to extend the services under this program by another 5 years till July 2021, at an
additional cost of 160 million USD.

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