By Lucky Masilela
Last year around this time I wrote that the Covid-19 pandemic represented the most compelling case for making Internet access a human right.
This year, commemoration of one of apartheid South Africa’s most gruesome days, Human Rights’ Day (Sharpeville Day of 1960, March 21), coincided with the first anniversary of the national state of disaster and lockdown, as well as the release of a report that strengthens the case for universal Internet access afresh.
The report was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the side of annual Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development hosted by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), on March 20. It emphasises the positive impact of Covid-19 on e-commerce in Africa.
Against the backdrop of the millions of Covid deaths worldwide and over a hundred thousand deaths across Africa, this ECA report could not have come at a better time to demonstrate the upside of our gruelling encounter with the pandemic.
The essence of this ECA report is that the “e-commerce sector and the digital economy grew considerably throughout the decade ending in 2019”.
As devastating as Covid-19 has been on the health and economic fronts, it “opened up new opportunities for the continent’s digital economy”.
The reason for this considerable growth during the decade to 2019 was improved Internet penetration rates, reduced Internet costs and growth of mobile telephony.
Guy Futi, one of the authors of the report, said in the presentation that by 2019 Africa had realised unparalleled growth in its digitalisation – adding 290 million people to those connected to the Internet.
This was among others the result of the investment of $1.4 billion in venture capital. It led to over an additional 30 percent of adults in South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya reporting that they owned mobile phones.
It is common knowledge that access to the Internet is not where it should be in Africa. In South Africa, according to StatsSA, 57.5 percent of the population had access to the Internet at the end of 2020. This is still lower than in countries like Mali (59.8 percent), Gabon (60 percent), Kenya (78.2percent) and Nigeria (96.1 percent).
It is encouraging that the vaccination process has started in South Africa. That will go some way in slowing down the rate of infections, starting with the healthcare sector.
However, the lockdown is still in force, and the number of people attending indoor meetings is restricted to 100. This means that the ability of people to mount their economic recovery to reverse the damage caused by the pandemic depends directly on their access to fast and affordable Internet, as well as increasingly affordable mobile data.
At ZA Central Registry we reiterate that this will make it easier for learners to keep up with their educational programmes, for healthcare centres to deliver some services remotely and police stations to monitor the crime situation.
The protection of these basic human rights of South Africans – just like the e-commerce as reported by the ECA – can be enhanced if we follow the cue of this report.
All African governments and private sector leaders need to take heed of this positive correlation between access to ICT and the speed of the much-needed economic recovery post-Covid.
That is because 2021 is going to be decisive in how quickly each country will turn its fortunes around and restore the quality of life for most of its citizens to what it was before the outbreak – and place it on course for sustainable improvement.
*Lucky Masilela is the CEO of ZA Central Registry.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Star or Independent Media.
The Star