Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Africa Internet Summit 2022 (AIS ’22), an annual regional multi-stakeholder ICT conference that serves as a platform for technocrats and businesses to discuss policies, trends, resources, challenges and opportunities for sustainable Internet growth in Africa and the Indian Ocean region, opened, yesterday, at Le Méridien Hotel in Pointe-aux-Piments.
The workshop, held from 30 May 2022 to 03 June 2022, is organised by the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) and the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG).
It comprises academia from the public and private sectors, technical organisations, government institutions, and the civil society who will interact on issues related to the Internet and Internet development in Africa.
The Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Darsanand Balgobin; the Ghanaian scientist and engineer who has presided the first Board of Directors of AFRINIC, Dr Nii Quaynor; and other stakeholders were present at the opening ceremony.
In his address, Minister Balgobin highlighted that this hybrid event, that has registered more than 700 participants, both online and onsite, from more than 50 countries worldwide, will enable participants to discuss how to work together and make their joint ambitions as regards Innovation, Communication and Technology a reality.
Furthermore, the Minister stressed that fora like the Africa Internet Summit are instrumental in securing the necessary proposals for a roadmap to achieve the targeted objective of a connected Africa within an acceptable timeframe and generate solutions for a united Africa as a robust and resilient connectivity lies at the base of a sound Internet ecosystem.
“By deploying the necessary connectivity technology across the African continent, only then will Internet services be within the reach of the people of Africa with the goal of leaving no one behind,” he pointed out.
The success of the digitalisation programme for Africa, Mr Balgobin underlined, goes far beyond the roll out of connectivity across the continent and the affordability of connectivity and other facilities like computers, tablets and smart phones is key for encouraging the take up of digital services by African people.
COVID-19, he pointed out, has shown us the importance of digitalisation for the delivery of services, be it in times of emergency or not. On this score, the Minister reiterated that a motivated partnership is needed among African Governments, private operators and the Global Internet Community in order to truly bring digitalisation within the reach of one and all. Minister Balgobin further dwelt on some major strides that have been covered in terms of connectivity in Mauritius.
These include: International connectivity to three sub-marine cables, namely SAFE, LION/LION2 and METISS with a fourth cable, T3, to be operational by mid of next year; provision of good connection with Fibre to the Home to households, which has reached 100% since 2017; the whole country is fully covered with 3G and 4G services for mobile connectivity and; an initial 5G service has been launched in June last year and provides coverage for the upper regions of Mauritius.
In addition, he added that last November, Mauritius has introduced the Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Act to protect citizens and businesses transacting online.
“This new law is well adapted to the current situation prevailing in cyberspace making our digital ecosystem more resilient and secure for use by Internet users,” the Minister emphasised.
Minister Balgobin stated that for an inclusive progress to be achieved in the global economy, no country is to be excluded in today’s new ways of doing business and communicating with each other.
“International cooperation plays an important role in addressing challenges related to Internet Governance, skills mismatch, capacity building, digital literacy, cyber threats, technical barriers to trade, regulatory frameworks, and many more,” he added.
In this context, he underlined that a multi-stakeholder forum like this one is the right platform where the expertise to address common issues, and foster a sustainable digitalisation programme and inclusion for all can be shared.
For his part, Dr Quaynor indicated that this is the 10th edition of this flagship Summit on the Internet in Africa, and the first time in Mauritius, which is highly significant as Mauritius is the home of AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry of Africa and a pillar of Internet management and governance on the Continent, for 18 years now.
He stressed that in addition to workshops, technical presentations and networking opportunities, the crucial part of the Summit is dedicated to policy discussions on Internet Protocol (IP) address management and their governance.
Dr Quaynor added that the main focus is on ensuring an equitable and efficient distribution of these resources to the African and Indian Ocean Internet community to support the sustainable development of the Internet in the region served by AFRINIC.
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