The European Union has allocated about €4 billion (US$5.58 billion) for infrastructure development including ICT in the eastern and southern Africa region.The head of the European Commission delegation to Zambia, Derek Fee, said that "the EU had put a substantial amount of money at [the] national and regional level because the commission is aware that in parts of Africa, communication costs are one of the highest."
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Out of the €4 billion, the Zambian government will receive €485 million.
Part of the money will be used to develop sufficient productive capacity in all sectors in order to reap the benefits of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that the E.U. is signing with African countries aimed at fostering business relationships.
The E.U. has been pumping money into the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) for a ICT policy harmonization program. The regulatory and ICT policy harmonization program is aimed at removing constraints to ICT usage among Comesa member states in order to promote regional integration.
Comesa is setting up a regional telecommunication broadband infrastructure that will connect all national telecom operators in member countries, coordinate pricing and network infrastructure and bring down the high cost of communication in the region.
The ICT policy and regulatory harmonization program is also aimed at standardizing IT laws and regulations in the region.
Comesa, which is based in Lusaka, Zambia, is a regional economic bloc with 20 member countries, including Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and Uganda. The working groups have already been set up by Comesa in many countries to oversee the process of ICT policy and regulatory harmonization program.
Source: AHU – David A-O