Africa Should Look To India For Digital Inspiration

Aubrey Hruby, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Africa Center, writing at Financial Times: Africa's digital economy is still small in size compared with those of its global peers. But it has seen exponential growth over the past decade and now has the potential to redefine the continent's economies. [...] African governments and development finance institutions (DFIs) should look to India as a model and focus on critical infrastructure needs. This includes reducing the cost of data and increasing access to fixed line broadband, spurring corporate ventures in the tech ecosystem, and providing Africans with the skills they need to take part in this digital transformation. The lack of adequate access to the internet in most African countries boils down to the fact that mobile data is too expensive and fixed line broadband is too slow and not widely available. It costs Africans on average $7.04 or nearly 9 per cent of their monthly income for just 1GB of mobile data (enough to watch about three hours of low quality video on Netflix). That compares with just 3.5 per cent of monthly income in Latin American and 1.5 per cent in Asia.

There has been progress in some countries. In Nigeria, mobile data prices continue to drop following a decision by the Communications Commission in October 2015 to remove a floor on data prices, and increased competition among submarine cable companies. In India, competition among carriers played a critical role in lowering mobile data costs, which are now the cheapest in the world. Reliance Jo, a young telecom operator, is highly responsible for the shift, investing $35bn in a 4G network and offering free unlimited data trials to attract new customers. While some have criticised the company's practices and data prices may increase, the impact of private sector investment and competition has benefited average Indians. African governments should further liberalise their telecoms sectors and encourage competition to promote private investment in infrastructure that can be shared by providers. Regulators should track the cost of data as a measure of the healthiness of the industry.