OPINION East Africa: Regional Federation Has No Choice But to Embrace ICT
28 July 2007 | Andrew Limo | Nairobi
"Look at the Americans; they are controlling our lives from the outer space," he said. "They monitor whatever we do while we (in East Africa) still argue whether to integrate or not."
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How else can the East African Community, now joined by Rwanda and Burundi, truly integrate to achieve a common market by 2010, if not by seizing the opportunities that come with the digital revolution?
In a recent report by The EastAfrican, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, while on a less travelled road to Kenya and Tanzania, ostensibly to drum up support for regional integration, expressed frustration at the pace of progress.
"The black man is suffering because of lack of integration? Look at the Americans; they are controlling our lives from the outer space," he said. "They monitor whatever we do while we (in East Africa) still argue whether to integrate or not."
President Museveni was of course referring to technologies such as satellite, cellphones and the Internet - tools of digital civilisation which powerful nations use to "control" others not necessarily by surveillance and espionage, but by having the upper hand in trade.
We have seen how modern technologies are enabling businesses to exchange information, transfer money and even hold meetings without travelling - all in real time and at falling costs.
President Museveni's trip to Vice-President Moody Awori's home in Western Province and to former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere's village, a tedious 3,000km journey which was not completed due to bad roads, could easily have been accomplished through tele-conferencing - that art of using face-to-face video to hold meetings remotely.
The only problem, though, is that the exchange of gifts and the sharing of other niceties like a cup of tea would not be possible. But that would be the trade-off for the technology.
Perhaps more appropriately, the transmission of video over a long distance is critical for medical doctors in addressing cross-border health concerns through what is known as telemedicine. An East African regional integrated e-health programme will help harmonise policies and information sharing on the breakout of diseases such as the recent case of the Rift Valley fever. A geographical information system (GIS) is helpful in tracking and sharing information on occurrences like earthquakes.
There is a great need for a regional ICT (information and communication technology) integration, policy and regulatory framework. It is a good thing to set up a union and even a common market for a trading bloc like the EAC, which has a population of 120 million. But the real benefits of this initiative will be realised only when efficient systems such as roads and telecommunication are in place.
There have been efforts by the EAC secretariat in Arusha to develop a common approach to computerisation issues such as the cargo tracking GPS (geographical positioning satellite) which will harmonise regulation and simplify cross-border rail and road transport procedures.
There are a number of other ICT related projects mainly in agriculture, and we need to strengthen these efforts. Right now each country is developing systems that suit its needs.
It is not known if these systems will be able to talk to one another when we finally become a federation. The focus should, therefore, be the harmonisation and adoption of standards. And the time and opportunity to do so with least pain is now.
The EAC secretariat, with the support of the Canadian e-Policy Research Centre (CePRC) came up with an interim working group on regional e-government in 2004. The team has since been holding regional interested parties' workshops to develop regional ICT policies in e-health, e-commerce, cyber crime and so on.
The East African Legislative Assembly and the East African Business Council will need to support efforts that aim at creating wired and joined-up states through the digital revolution. There is a receptive audience in business that is more than willing to support technology.
Mobile phone providers are beginning to offer one regional calling tariff. This is a good move. In Kenya, we have a popular payment system called M-Pesa, while in Tanzania a similar one is called e-Fulusi. You cannot remit money from one to the other. That is bad.
If we are to market the region as a single tourist destination, then visitors must be able to pay in a unified system. We cannot have one country accepting credit cards and another insisting on cash. We cannot have one airline issuing e-tickets and another insisting on old paper tickets.
Regional integration is about wealth creation and business. For as long as we have issues with technology, the great enabler, we are not in business.
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