BY EMEKA AGINAM

Participants at the just concluded Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition held in Lagos last week called on African governments to show greater commitment to the establishment of ICT parks, incubation centres, as well as frameworks and policies for seamless broadband connectivity.

The forum which brought together highly cerebral ICT practitioners, stakeholders, regulatory and policy makers, security agencies, students and ICT enthusiasts from across the globe afforded the participants the opportunity to discuss among other things, global technology trends, the business of technology, ICT as catalyst for development, software development and entrepreneurship, financing digital innovation as well as case studies and success stories.

Running simultaneously with the 19th edition of the World Electronic Forum, the event with the theme, “Towards Digital Singularity in Africa attracted speakers from Africa, the US, Europe and Asia

Participants   at the conference unanimously agreed that African countries must leverage on their membership of international economic blocs to explore all aspects of ICT and intelligence in readiness for the emergence of the machine intelligence era.

Warning on the avalanche of threats in the cyber space, African governments, societies and the big corporations, according to the forum must not only forestall and manage the risks associated with this trend but develop security policies and procedures in addition to formulating cyber security strategies that include people, process and technology.

Communiqué reached after the event, identified software production as the best entry point for Africa into the IT production complex and decried the trend whereby Africa’s local developers are not receiving appropriate patronage and support to build and maintain their software.

However, participants, according to the communiqué called on countries with weaker institutions to support patent protections and copyright laws to step up efforts in innovations and opening up of markets in order to enable them participate in the global competitive stage.

The conference also called on African countries to show greater commitment in the establishment of ICT parks, incubation centres, frameworks and policies, as well as ensuring seamless broadband connectivity.

Participants, among other things agreed that the domestic use of software technology is perhaps the most important driver of software industry growth for emerging economies and urged African governments to promulgate laws that would encourage and promote patronage of local software products.

The conference urged the technologically     advantage d economies in Africa to help accelerate Africa’s technological infrastructure by transferring technical know-how and business models, influencing technology policies, and by forging marketing and other ties with developed environments giving the Silicon Valley as an example.

While welcoming the efforts of African governments in the promotion of local content in various African countries, the forum prayed that more efforts should be geared towards promoting local content policies in the continent;

The conference while appreciating the surge in mobile technology penetration and the opportunities it has created in Africa, admitted that it is not yet Uhuru but just a development that has only set off an era to catalyze change for a better continent.