Putting the spotlight on Africa’s success stories

Speaking at the Opening Press Conference for ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2001 on 11 November 2001, the ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio Utsumi, made a number of important announcements instilling the feeling of confidence and cheerfulness that reigned throughout the week, both in the Gallagher Estate’s busy Exhibition Halls and in the crowded Forum sessions.

“At the time of AFRICA TELECOM 98, there were barely 2 million mobile subscribers on the whole African continent. But by the end of of December 2001, that number will be close to 30 million — nearly one and a half times the number of fixed-line subscribers,” Mr Utsumi said.

“So we are, at last, able to put some old myths to rest. No longer are there more telephones in Tokyo than in Africa. In fact, there are twice as many fixed lines — and significantly more cellular subscribers in Africa, than in Tokyo”, he remarked.

He went on to announce that the Sub-Saharan African teledensity was no longer trapped below 1 per cent — the base level considered essential to economic growth and development. In the year 2000, fixed-line teledensity grew from 0.9 to 1.2 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the areas of regulation and competition, the Secretary-General had this to say: “Africa is no longer a continent lacking in fair regulation and free competition. Some 36 new operators launched mobile services in Africa between January 2000 and June 2001. And well over half the countries in Africa now have an independent regulator.”

AFRICA 2001 (the fifth regional telecommunications Exhibition and Forum for the Africa region, held from 12 to 16 November at the Gallagher Estate, outside Johannesburg, and hosted by the Government of the Republic of South Africa) can therefore fairly be said to have been a watershed event both for the African continent and for ITU. And with ITU now forecasting that there will be more than 100 million mobile cellular subscribers in Africa by the year 2005, the outlook for the continent has never been brighter.

High-level backing of government and industry

The AFRICA 2001 event was opened on 11 November by the South African Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, and closed on 16 November by the host country’s President, Thabo Mbeki. Altogether more than 600 VIPs, including 40 ministers (or their representatives), 55 ambassadors and 110 CEOs took part in the event, giving it the highest profile attendance level of any event ITU had yet staged in Africa.

Sizwe Nxasana, chief executive of Telkom, the Opening Ceremony’s sponsor, spoke of the rapid and far-reaching transformation currently taking place in South Africa. Mr Nxasana drew attention to the huge task facing Telkom in bringing telecommunication services to every corner of the country, in addition to providing state-of-the-art services to the commercial firms relying on Telkom for their own competitive advantages.

The combination of high-level backing and a strong commitment on the part of participants from the Forum, the Exhibition and the media brought AFRICA 2001 excellent media coverage and exposure, both in Africa and in the broader international context. This was especially enhanced by two new initiatives for the event, the Youth Forum and the ITU Pavilion, focusing on rural applications of new technologies.