Networked Readiness – how long will the stars keep shining?

“In today’s information-driven economy, no country can hope to continuously outperform its competitors. ‘Staying on top’ is a never-ending job, which requires quick adaptation, innovativeness and the ability to identify and adopt best practices ‘on the fly’. As competition becomes truly global, advanced economies realize that their present and future strategies need to focus on their only potential source of longer-term comparative advantage, namely knowledge. The acquisition, building and sharing of knowledge across national economies has hence become the focus of some of the most ambitious and forward-looking strategies among OECD countries over the last decade. In such strategies, knowledge is the core of an organic set of mechanisms, which eventually allows societies to grow harmoniously and innovatively. For such a model to function, however, a certain number of prerequisites must be present, which include the institutions, the infrastructure, and the incentives without which knowledge cannot be built, transmitted or shared. Education systems, information networks, innovation policies are some examples of such prerequisites. By measuring their density and performance, one can obtain a rather telling picture of how ready a particular national economy is to face the challenges of the emerging global information and knowledge economy, often referred to as ‘e-readiness’. ”

In the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau found in Genesis, is the mind boggling story of the fates of two twin brothers. One was endowed with the vision to be greater than the other from birth, and the other had no respect whatsoever for greatness and ambition such that he sold his birthright for a plate of soup and beans. Some scholars have gone to analyze the story and come up with the explanation that Esau can only equate or be the progenitor of the African race with little or no ambition at all of ever achieving anything of significance to the rest of the world. How else can you explain our lack of progress in as far as the world is concerned? All you need to look at to see what we embody and espouse is our visions or lack of them. One country not too far away from where I stand has a vision “Our vision is that …will be an industrialized state by 2030, with a significant improvement in the essential quality of life of all … ‘citizens’.” Well, I don’t know how you think and what you think but this vision is as broad as it is wide what is significant improvement, how do you quantify it once you have attained it and what is essential quality of life? When did industrialization begin and how old it will be in the year 2030, don’t forget that we are now in yet another age the Information Age. If we were not busy getting industrialized when others were, what were we up to. Maybe it pays to join them if we can’t beat them but what use is it joining them when the meeting has been adjourned and all resolutions have been passed and the Amen of the meeting has been said.

What should Africa do that it already has not done to join the stars in shining and to deem their light, is the ‘dark continent’ providing the shining stars with the most conducive environment to beam their light. More often than not the solution lies in the detail. Let’s just take a quick look at the contrasting ICT Policy issues according to one source between the “Developing World” and the “Developed World”-:

The Developing World

• Alleviating Poverty
• Health
• Education
• The Cost of Telephone Calls
• The Banking System
• Physical Logistics

The Developed World

• Electronic Commerce
• Universal Service
• Electronic Gambling
• Technology Neutral Taxation
• Privacy of the Individual


I wonder if we are truly poor and how poor we are that at every turn we have to put our poverty first before our wide noses? I am more than convinced that poverty is a state of the mind and as such we are as poor as our lack of thinking, I mean really engaging our minds to solve problems systematically once and for future generations. Is it really possible for health to be for all and for education to be for all? I thought even our Lord Jesus Christ said it clearly “do not give the bread of the children to the dogs”. Meaning in every situation there are the children and there are dogs. It is common sense that when you have two or more options to trade you in turn have competition and costs are lowered as each player tries to cut costs and find innovative ways of lowering down prices, hence it is an insult in deed to have a situation where a monopoly exists and there is talk of costs being atrocious. The Banking System is the major culprit in our lack of progress. All the efforts are a simple photocopy of Western, European and ‘other’ systems of banking which unfortunately do not necessarily apply to the African continent. You would have thought that the truly indigenous banks would offer unique services to the local people but alas their requirements for trade especially financing are just as stringent as the exotic banks. The sticky point that exposes their lack of uniqueness is the issue of collateral. How do you contextualize collateral to suite the African market where people believed until recently in owning houses in the rural areas as opposed to urban areas also attributably due to colonialism? Apart from fixed assets (chief among which are houses) it is a common fact that it is easier in the African context, to own your dream car than your dream house, so can a house be the only form of collateral acceptable to access a loan? It boggles the mind. Don’t also forget that the banks are also heavily incapacitated due to a myriad of problems beyond their control including failed government policies as well as the generally harsh African economic conditions. We are far from the manufacturers and most of the African countries are land locked hence physical logistics play a nasty trick on us. What a shame all of us should have been some islands in the middle of the seas for us to function better.

In contrast, the “Developed World” has a focus on progressive issues which seem to signify that what troubles us is not an issue to them. The devils we face daily were conquered generations ago for them and they need not lift a finger to fight those wars anymore. Their focus is truly on making life easier and getting things done faster, how else would you explain their fascination with electronic commerce? I wonder what they call Universal Service, it most certainly doesn’t apply in the African context, universal who? To what extent does it benefit me, the community, the nation, and the ‘Diaspora’? When you have reached the apex of self aggrandizement only then can you think about Electronic Gambling, the height of extravagance. How else can you describe it? Think of this idea as the “Levels of Abstraction” and it clearly dawns on you that our Vision(s) are way too small. Talk of Technology Neutral Taxation, you would think the heavily squeezed and “developing” among the nations would advocate for more lenient technology taxes or zero taxes, but well they seem to be ‘doing just fine’ making enough money for governments of the day and killing the future heritage of nations. Laugh about the Privacy of the Individual, how private can one be when he lives in an open society? By the way nothing is private in Africa what with u-buntu.

The question is ‘How long will the stars keep shining’. The answer is just as simple, for as long as Africa does not turn on the lights or awaken to a new dawn, a new morning, a new day, a new era, a new dispensation, a paradigm shift in the world order. Everybody else has had their fair share of the glory and it seems as though the world is now waiting on Africa to shine. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. When you are following from behind you have literally no pressure to perform, all you have to do is to bring yourself together, gather your strength and with all your might lash out with one burst of energy, your all and sundry and give it your best short. If we have good, sound policies and we lack follow through, then we know the problem is half solved, all we need to do is to follow through with every little resources we have and not doubt ourselves in the process. The reasons why we falter are not too many to fathom we lack insight into the dynamics of ICT usage but with the right attitude we can overcome that. I am deeply concerned about our lack of a cumulative tradition of research, but again how can it become cumulative when we are culturally stingy with information. If the family next door has stumbled on a “good” method of preserving seed for the next season they will never ever let that secret live the confines of their hut lest the whole village copies the method and they lose the number one spot of Best Village Farmer. There is no coordination of initiatives were we are concerned we seem to live by the adage ‘each man for himself and GOD for us all’ how else can we not have systems already in place to cater for regional integration where imports, exports and the like are concerned. Our worst evil is to continue to allow our policies and yes ICT Policies to be Donor-Driven. What a shame, so we don’t place importance on our own issues to the extent that all initiatives have to involve donors in one form or the other? By the way where do these donors come from? Who then is the master, the beggar or the giver and can we compete with the master? It’s a pity indeed how we chase these guys from the local village court (padare) and invite them into the king’s yard to implement what they suggested to the king in the same place days before.

“Excelling in tomorrow’s global knowledge economy will mean competing with India’s legions of engineers, Estonia’s inventiveness, or Qatar’s vision : what could prevent Nordic countries from being successful at it ?”

No mention of Africa there! What a cause for concern.


“Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” Hebrews 12 verse 1.