Fresh approach to Broadband pays off for Africa —Report

MANY countries across Africa have made policy advances to reduce the cost of   broadband access, boosted by improved spectrum management and investment into  infrastructure, a new report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has said.

The advances in lowering broadband costs by African countries such as Malawi, Rwanda,  Botswana and Morocco is significant, especially the light of this year’s findings by  the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which shows that nearly half of the   global population aged 10 years and over has never used the internet.

The ITU adds that a “disproportionate number are women, particularly in Africa and   South Asia.”

The reasons for this vary from high costs of accessing broadband, infrastructure   gaps, and literacy deficiencies to limited digital exposure.

“Africa sees the biggest (broadband) policy advances,” the A4AI said in its   Affordability Report 2020 released last week. It uses the Affordability Drivers Index   (ADI) to rank countries’ infrastructure deployment, policy frameworks that encourage investment in broadband and broadband adoption rates.

The report added: “While Africa remains the region with the lowest average score,   this year it saw the fastest improvement with (regional) countries improving   planning, better spectrum management and supporting programmes to narrow the digital  gender gap.”

Morocco, the report said, with a score of 71 out of 100, is the only African country   in the list of top ten countries that have the highest broadband affordability  scores. Senegal, Benin, Uganda, Rwanda as well as Tanzania and Mali are ranked among the top 10 highest scoring countries among the least developed countries ranked.

Rwanda is one such African country “which has effective national broadband planning”   which has “seen 1GB data fall to less than a fifth of its 2015 price, from 20.2 per   cent to 3.39 per cent of average monthly” income.

The East African country, touted as progressive in digital development, also “made   faster progress than its East African neighbours which have less robust broadband”  planning.

Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the region, has also made strides in digital   access and policy formulation to lower affordability of broadband. 1GB of broadband   in Malawi now costs between 6 per cent and 16 per cent of a person’s total income.

Out of a possible 100, Botswana scored 68.7, Mauritius 68.6, Nigeria 66.1, Ghana 63.4   and Tunisia 61.9. Other high ranked African countries include Senegal, South Africa,   Kenya, Ivory Coast and Egypt which all scored above 50.

“Countries across Africa (rose) an average of 7 per cent in the ADI this year. Malawi   has one of the largest year-on-year score increases this year, of over six points, a   reflection of its work around the consultation and adoption of its 2019-2023 national  broadband strategy,” the report stated.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Nigeria Recorded More COVID-19 Infections, Deaths, Recoveries Last Week

Last week, Nigeria’s COVID-19 infections witnessed yet another increase. Tribune Online analysis also shows that the 1,607 new confirmed cases are higher than those recorded the previous week (November 29 – December 5) where the country recorded 1,102 cases…

We Have Not Decided Yet To Call Off Strike — ASUU President

t is still uncertain whether the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will end soon as President of the union, Professor ‘Biodun Ogunyemi said there were certain steps to be taken to reach that final conclusion on the issue…

[ICYMI] Judicial Panel: I’m Unaware Nigerian Army Called Lekki Shooting ‘Fake News’ On Twitter – General

Brig.-Gen. Ahmed Taiwo, Commander of the 81 Division, Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island has said that he was unaware that the Nigerian Army Headquarters had described the shootings at the Lekki Tollgate as “fake news” on Twitter…

USElection2020: Is It Trump Or Biden?

THE United States election between Republican and current President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden takes place today, November 3rd and is on course to witness the highest turnout in a century with more than 95 million people already cast their ballots in early voting…