How ICT can aid social-economic transormation

Government, business, consumers and community information is made accessible at affordable prices and reasonable quality throught devices such as phones and computers.

Dennis Magaya

INFORMATION and Communication Technology (ICT) is the equipment, networks, hardware and software used for communications and for information accessing, processing, storage and transfer.
ICT creates a knowledge and information-based society and therefore offers critical building blocks for national social-economic transformation.
In 2013, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset), a policy blueprint that defines the national vision, strategies and objectives for development was launched.
Zim-Asset gives context to the national ICT strategy and prospects.
We are Zimbabweans with a history, heritage and specific national aspirations.
We have challenges and needs that relate to our past and point to our destination.
As such, ICT enables Zim-Asset goals while leveraging the relevant regional and global perspectives.
In general, a national ICT strategy can be sector driven or focus on diffusing ICT in the broader economy.
A combination of the two approaches maximizes the benefits of short-term socio-economic transformation without compromising future sustainability.
In the long term, ICT should be embedded in all national development strategies as a tool that enables all economic sectors.
For instance, one of the Zim-Asset Clusters is Poverty Eradication and Social Services. The cluster components show that causes of poverty are many and mutually reinforcing.
The rural folk and the poor require access to basic information on health, education, their rights, prices and public welfare services.
Inadequate ICT results in compounded increase in the service transaction and delivery costs.
As such, an ICT strategy should address all the aspects of the cluster to achieve meaningful overall results.
Developing economies like Zimbabwe find it easier to focus on achieving ICT sector specific goals because other sectors such as mining and agriculture are still driving the basic incremental bread and butter strategies and not mature to embrace ITC on a significant scale.
According to the World Bank, a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration causes a 1,38 percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) contribution.
The 2015 Zimbabwe ICT sector performance lead indices show that overall telephone and broadband penetration was about 100 percent and 45 percent respectively and the sector revenue was about US$0,9 billion.
The sector provided a platform of about 13 million potential consumers to any business operation reliant on ICT. This is quite impressive and shows a sector full of growth prospects.
However, mobile and broadband are only components and not the full ICT.
Therefore a comprehensive measure with multiple indices, which takes into consideration the pervasiveness and transformative nature of ICT is required to assess the sector.
For instance, using the ICT Development Index (IDI), in 2013, Zimbabwe was ranked eighth out of 38 African countries with Mauritius being first followed by Seychelles, South Africa, Cape Verde, Botswana, Namibia and Ghana respectively.
Globally, the Zimbabwe IDI ranking was 121 out 166.
IDI is an International Telecommunications Union standard that governments, telecommunications operators and development agencies use to measure the digital divide and compare national ICT performance.
It is based on 11 ICT indicators, grouped in three clusters namely, internet access, use and skills.
Looking into future prospects, the ICT strategy roadmap can be packaged in phases bearing in mind that the phases only indicate the order of importance and preferred sequence.
Quite often market realities lead to components in the phases being implemented in parallel. The following sections unpack the phases, the opportunities for service providers and the benefits to the Zim-Asset.
Phase 1: Information and communication
This phase focuses on providing ICT for purposes of connectivity, access to information and communication.
Government, business, consumers and community information is made accessible at affordable prices and reasonable quality through devices such as phones and computers.
The understanding of ICT is predominantly voice calls, Google search engines and social media services such as Whatsapp, twitter etc.
In fact, the current ICT measures based on telephony penetration and usage relate to this phase.
The Zimbabwe mobile voice tariffs of US$0,12/minute and the broadband prices are designed for this phase.
Although there is room for growth, the opportunities for service providers are diminishing.
In fact, the prices for basic voice and data access will drop as these services become commodities and align with regional and global trends.
The mobile voice tariffs reduction by 35 percent in 2015 did not result in service usage increase.
The benefit was most likely absorbed by other demands on the consumer disposable income.
Put differently, price reduction on voice communication does quite talk to the ICT value to users.
The Zimbabwean average data cost is at least three times higher than the regional average.
Some countries like Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia have direct access to undersea cable Internet landing points while Zimbabwe being landlocked, has to pay transit costs through neighbouring countries.
Service providers are currently focusing on locking opportunities by investment in national backbone and quality last mile broadband communications technologies. The price of data is not regulated.
Unless there is fundamental reduction in data prices, the usage of broadband data communications and associated information will remain depressed.
The 2015 average broadband contribution to telecommunications service providers revenue in Zimbabwe was around 10 percent, which is low compared to the European Union 30 percent.
It is anticipated that infrastructure sharing and the consolidation of national backbone infrastructure will reduce broadband data prices which increase service uptake.
The prospects for 2016 for this phase are attractive if service providers explore opportunities within the Zim-Asset enablement in sectors such as:
Mining
*Small scale miners can access daily local market prices, world price and fidelity price.
* Small scale miners can know which mills are in and around the area and the prices
* Linking geological bulletins and public information to respective areas eg. accessing all data previously published on the area, any mines and mine history in the vicinity.
*The names of the geologists who have done any work in the area which would help get geological profile quicker.
Agriculture
*Rainfall and temperature information for farmers to allow preparations for planting, timing to purchase inputs and to acquire equipment or hire cattle for ploughing. Currently my uncle in Wedza has to listen to generalised weather news or rely on checking the clouds to predict when it will rain yet there is rich community empirical information and complex scientific data that can be used.
*Tobacco price information for farmers so that they bring produce depending on auction floor prices. In 2014, my uncle brought his tobacco to Harare, was in a queue for three days and only for the price to fall from US$3,50 per kg to US$1,50 per kg the day he was served. It was more expensive and not possible for him to take the tobacco packed for sale back home.
* The land reform programme benefited a huge number of farmers who now have to travel long distances to source items such as spares for tractors, irrigation equipment because there is no place they can get information to procure such items within the community
Home Affairs
* It costs on average US$3 for a person in a rural area to travel to the nearest Home Affairs offices for enquiries and applications of birth certificates, dearth certificates etc. In many cases they arrive only to be told that a certain requirement is missing or the papers are being processed.
Justice and legal
* The criminal justice systems are generally such that prosecutors, lawyers, accused, victims and family do not have ready access to court cases, court number, hearing date, outcomes and general criminal justice information. The informal market and SME community may benefit immensely from such information.
ZIMRA and city council payments
* The cost of compliance to ZIMRA requirements is generally high for informal and SME business who generally handle small amounts. In addition, the payments methods available are suitable for formal organisations. ICT makes it possible for an informal trader to pay small amounts such as US$0,50 on a daily basis towards ZIMRA or city council requirements.
Phase 2: Interaction
This phase focuses on providing ICT for interaction services between government, business, consumers and the public. It is stimulated by various applications (apps) and is generally dependent on phase 1 being in place. Users can ask questions and get real-time answers via e-mail, apps, use search engines for information and are able to upload and download all sorts of forms and documents. This phase provides the greatest opportunity for service providers and brings much better value to the Zim-Asset.
Corporates in Zimbabwe generally require massive transformation in business models to design products and services that resonate with the informal market and bottom of the pyramid emerging economy. The business should design systems that allow interaction with these emerging markets which is a complete change from the previous predominantly bricks and motor, shinny suit salesman, corporate park and high volume paper-work- based approach. Content and applications providing demand-driven information, which is relevant to the needs and conditions experienced by local people, are key in this phase.
Phase 3: Transaction
This phase enables transactions to be done without going to offices and community service centres. Corporates provide various touch points, digital access points. A typical example is mobile money services have seen phenomenal growth in Zimbabwe due to the unbanked population (76 percent). Mobile money provides financial inclusivity to the general population. However, ICT is much more than this. In fact, mobile money assumes that you have money in the first place. Zim-Asset requires ICT to provide a transaction platform that generates revenue as opposed to just payments, which is currently the case. My uncle should be able to sale his cattle, goats, apply for bottle store trading license and insure his tobacco against hailstorm from the comfort of his hut.
There are cross-cutting initiatives at various stages of implementation and still loads of opportunities in 2016 for this phase. For starters, there is need for a national strategy and blueprint for the planning design and implementation of common infrastructure such as e-Government, national backbone and data centre. A consolidated approach reduces costs and implementation time. Service providers should explore opportunities in the development and implementation of policy, regulatory, legal and institutional environment to support the process to transform Zimbabwe from a predominantly agricultural economy to an information-rich and knowledge-based society.
Currently more than 99 percent of ICT equipment is imported (excluding the towers, civil works and site building). There are opportunities to set up local companies for initially the assembly and later on manufacturing of ICT products. In addition, the development of ICT applications that provide real and basic solutions relevant to the people on the ground. It should be noted that the Zimbabwean market is small for the required economies of scale. As such, industry should target the Southern African Development Community (SADC) market where the population is larger than 260 million and GDP greater than US$480 billion.
Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in Africa (97 percent), has respect in the SADC region and the centralised geographical location advantage to position as a regional ICT innovation hub.
Firstly, government can facilitate broad based ICT innovation policy which allows national participation.
We can lead the launch of regional ICT innovation and entrepreneurship projects which are executed by cross boarder teams.
This entails actively promoting and supporting entrepreneurship as a vehicle for ICT growth, SMEs and informal markets which are the engine for growth in Africa.
Zimbabwe has an opportunity to design policy that attracts foreign skills by offering citizenships to ICT experts.
Sustainable youth development programmes and empowerment can be implemented through community based ICT centres where the youth develops applications and content relevant for commercial use within their communities while leveraging national and global infrastructure.
Government and private sector can plan and host ground breaking conferences such as a “Silicon Valley of Africa Conference” or an “ICT Entrepreneurship Conference” with actionable outcomes that propels the country to new heights. Zimbabwe can explore institutionalised partnerships with leading ICT countries such as India, China, and Singapore.
There is an opportunity for the education and training industry to provide relevant Human Resources capacity and skills.
The deployment and exploitation of ICTs in the educational system in schools, colleges and universities allows natural skills development.
The rapid ICT development increases the gap between educational institutions learning and the skills required in business.
It is recommend to implement focused, affordable small steps. Avoid big-bang “white elephants” that require almost impossible funding.
Where funding is available, such huge ICT projects across Africa have financial inefficiencies. Implementation should allow for community, consumer and corporate readiness in terms of education and adoption.
ICT implementation has to be localised as much as possible so that it addresses requirements on the ground.
Ideas, technologies, strategies imported from Europe, Asia or America without serious customisation won’t work and have never worked.
There are opportunities for investors and financiers in ICT. The starting point is that there has to be a business case for any ICT project.
Such projects should provide services that the community pays for. Please note that currently service providers are struggling to monetise ICT assets due to Over the Top (OTT) services such as Skype, Viber, Whatsapp and WiFi connectivity, which are generally perceived to be freed of charge.
The business case should therefore be based on value propositions that are beyond these OTTs.
The financing could come from government, private sector or Public-Private Partnerships. Micro-finance institutions can expand access to credit for young entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe for ICT projects.
The Universal Service Fund (USF) managed via POTRAZ aims to ensure there is universal communications access to all Zimbabweans.
However, there is need to enhance the fund application to include alternative cost effective communications technologies.
The USF fund should cater for information technologies that enable the collection, analysis and processing of local community content and data.
For instance, the fund can cater for ICT innovation hubs where Apps are developed by the rural youths.
In conclusion, the ICT opportunities for 2016 and beyond are rooted on how access to relevant information and the communication technologies will be provided within the context of enabling the Zim-Asset.
ICT can be used to enable the rural population to make choices, articulate interests, engage in learning, and have control over their own lives.
Once that is achieved, Zimbabwe can transform from the current predominantly mining, agro and commodity based economy into an information and knowledge-based economy.
The ICT strategy should be people centric.
This is critical mindset change for service providers that generally believe that the opportunity is in selling technology to the unsuspecting rural communities or at times enthusiastic urban consumers.
Zimbabwe has to evolve from a status where ICT services are predominantly user generated content such as voice calls and social media to richer information interaction and high-value transactions. After all, trying to grow an economy from basic user generated voice and a Whatsapp service is as futile as trying to lift yourself in a bucket.
A well-defined digital strategy is the most effective tool for cost reduction and operational efficiencies in the Zimbabwean economy.
The ICT services providers should explore regional opportunities and business models rather focus on domestic market to increase critical mass and essentially bring the money home.
There is an opportunity to make ICT infrastructure and services more available, affordable, fully accessible to the public.
The current phenomenal growth in mobile and broadband services and the availability of devices provide the initial platform because ICT is much more than that.
The ultimate opportunity is in developing Zimbabwe into the Silicon Valley of Africa and for the ICT sector to be key driver of the Zim-Asset.

Dr Magaya is the director of Rubiem Group. He writes here in his personal capacity.