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Kigali (Agenzia Fides)- A promise to invest 55 billion dollars (38 billion euro) in the next five years in the sector of African telecommunications, was the closing act of Connecting Africa Summit held at the end of October in Kigali the capital of Rwanda, organised by the International Telecommunications Union (see Fides 30/10/2007).
The Summit participants promised to connect all the capitals and main cities of Africa with new information technology.
Commitment to invest in the sector of telecommunications in Africa was signed by various African countries and international institutions including the European Commission and the World Bank, the latter promised to double funds for telecommunications infrastructures on the continent reaching 2 billion di dollars by 2012. African Bank for Development promised 65 million dollars to boost the sector. Moreover optical fibre networks will be built along Africa's oil pipelines, roads and railways.
The Kigali conference was attended by Rwanda, Mali, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti and Burundi.
Kenya also intends invest in information and communication technologies to create more jobs. The Nairobi government said it will finance the building of an undersea cable to connect east African coasts with the United Arab Emirates. The plan was born as a pan African initiative but because of delays in the initial timetable, the government of Kenya decided for an alternative programme. Kenya wants in fact to accelerate the construction of a new communications system to launch an international call-centre sector which needs low cost high speed lines. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/11/2007 righe 25 parole 270)
