Page 57 - ITU Journal - ICT Discoveries - Volume 1, No. 2, December 2018 - Second special issue on Data for Good
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ITU JOURNAL: ICT Discoveries, Vol. 1(2), December 2018




            DATA FOR GOOD IN AFRICA – TOWARDS INCREASED ACCESS AND ENABLING DATA POLICIES

                                              Babatunde Okunoye , ‘Gbenga Sesan
                                                              1
                                                                           2
                                            1 Paradigm Initiative,  Paradigm Initiative
                                                             2

          Abstract – Data has been rightly acknowledged as the future oil of the global economy. As a result of the
          large amounts of data being produced globally by individuals, households, organizations and nations, the
          potential for mining insights from aggregated big data has emerged, besides other uses of data. The
          potential multifaceted use of data for private and public good is fueled by super-fast telecommunication
          networks which power  communications  and data capture, transfer, storage  and  processing.  However,
          while developed economies are pressing ahead to harness the potential of data to transform their societies,
          Africa has lagged behind in the harnessing of data for public good. In many African countries, basic access
          to data is still a major challenge, and the policy landscape which enables data for public good is largely
          lacking. This paper gives an overview of the situation in Africa, where the infrastructure and data policy
          deficit is hampering the continent’s efforts towards digital development.

          Keywords  –  Access,  equality,  inclusiveness,  information  and  communication  technologies  (ICTs),
          information society


                                                               management. Supply chain  data  can  reveal  which
          1.   OUR GLOBAL DATA SOCIETY                         links in a chain could weaken thereby allowing for
                                                               proactive  and  timely  countermeasures  before  a
          The 21  century has undoubtedly brought along a      real problem manifests [6].  Also,  in healthcare,
                st
          data revolution. The amount of data created daily    aggregate  societal  data  has  been  utilized  in  large
          is  simply  astonishing,  as  individuals,  households,   epidemiological studies to forestall the outbreak of
          organizations and nations produce data like never    diseases  [7].  The  enormous  potential  of  data  to
          previously  witnessed  in  history.  It  has  been   catalyze  productivity  in  major  global  economic
          estimated that more data was created in the past     sectors has seen experts dub data as the new ‘’oil’’
          two years than in all of the preceding history [1].   of the global economy [8].
          The  sources  of  this  data  are  as  varied  and
          far-reaching  as  our  mobile  devices,  financial   2.    DATA IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD
          transactions,  Internet  activity,  health  records  and
          the  rise  of  the  Internet  of  things  (IoT).  An   The  advances  and  progress  of  a  data-driven
          estimated  2.5  Quintillion  bytes  of  data  is  being   economy, as described above, is clearly noticeable
          produced  daily  [2].  There  is  no  doubt  that  the   in developed economies of North America, Europe
          massive  global  proliferation  and  adoption  of    and  Asia.  These  economies  are  backed  by  an
          telecommunication  services  is  a  major  factor    excellent   telecommunications     infrastructure
          behind the surge in  data production.  About  3.5    backbone    and    policies,   which   enables   a
          billion  people  are  connected  to  the  Internet  [3],   data-intensive  society and economy where
          with an estimated 8.4 billion devices and objects or   individuals, households, organizations and nations
          things connected in 2017 [4], and a projection of    are  always  connected  to  data  and  information
          between 20 – 30 billion connected things in 2020     which  can  be  stored,  shared,  and  collated  in  real
          [5].                                                 time.  Advanced  economies  in  these  regions  are
                                                               eminently placed to fully harness the potential of
          Advances in the processing of data and data mining   the emerging global data economy.
          are creating productivity gains in critical economic
          sectors  in  developed  countries.  For  example,  big   To  give  an  indication  of  the  state  of
          data analytics have found important application in   telecommunications  infrastructure  in  advanced
          the  automobile  industry’s  global  supply  chain   economies,  we  can  take  a  look  at  some  ICT
                                                               statistics  such  as  Internet  penetration,  active








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