ICT as a catalyst for economic take off

It’s not a dispute that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accords a password to prosperity and posterity in all realms of the human society in the 21st century. ICT is one of the pillars for socio-economic and industrial development. It has revolutionalised education, governance, manufacturing, medicine and communication and Transport in entirely. In essence, the benefits of embracing and being ICT compliant for individuals, nations, governments, learning institutions and companies outstrips the underlying costs of installation and capacity building. As a consequence, governments ought to develop a comprehensive integrated ICT led social-economic development policy plan, set within the wider context of the development goals of each country. This will facilitate the realization of the society into an information rich knowledge base society. All key economic activities for instance, Agriculture, Tourism, Commerce, Industries, Health, Aviation, Research, the list is endless, have to be anchored around modern technology in order to achieve the desired efficiency and productivity. But even as there exists disparities in levels of growth and development in ICT worldwide, as clearly manifested in the global digital divide, all energy and resources ought to be routed in the pursuit to bridge the gap.

Being a computer literate is a one step forward towards achieving sustainable national economic development.

In the past, people haplessly witnessed the widening gap in the digital divide, now the western world has continuously edged the developing world in ICT advancement. The reasons for the phenomena are apparent that the western world has a rich resource base both human and financial and the requisite infrastructure. There is need for all the stakeholders in developing societies to put in place policies, resources and the infrastructure that will bolster the development of ICT for posterity. E-learning, e-commerce, and e-governance among others have become the clarion in affluent and fast placed society, impacting directly to the development of the society. Despite the difficulty environment, it’s important to note that the developing countries and Africa in particular, have recorded remarkable in the field of ICT. With the advent of World Wide Web (www) communication has been eased in speed, convince and the cost of people mailing at the touch of a button across borders and continents. For instance in Africa, and particularly the East African Region, ICT has yielded greater benefits in the education sector. Those who hitherto, for one or more reasons could not access education either because of the prohibitive costs are now learning on-line, others are students at the open visual learning centers, pivoted from Universities in the region. Besides the online facilities, ICT provides an unlimited database for scholars and researchers posted on various sites on the world wide web. But the sector now owes remarkable advancements to ICT is commerce, its emergence has enhanced the levels of transaction and speed. Currently individuals and companies made orders and transact online. The benefit from the technology is that, the cost of doing business has tremendously been lowered. Even bank transactions are undertaken online. On the part of rich nations, they need to help in exploring ways of how to connect the entire world wide voice gates. They too of course in collaboration with the less advantaged, need to explore concrete measures and action plan to meet this objective, taking into account resolution reached at previous telecommunications development meetings in Tunis in November 2005 and in Geneva in December 2003. There is need to lay down a clear and more inclusive, most just and equitable information society. But then poor countries, especially in Africa, have complained about the reticence of western governments since the Geneva summit. However, this should not be a draw back to attain ICT growth.