Reputation on the line
Henry Chasia has arguably one of the most important jobs in Africa. As executive head of the e-Africa Commission, an initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), Chasia is responsible for helping develop information and communications technology in Africa. That includes overseeing the construction of high-speed telecommunications links between African countries and the rest of the world.
It's no easy task. A map of the world's submarine communications links shows a single strand – the Sat-3 system – running along Africa's west coast. The east coast has no cable system at all, the only highly populated region in the world that is not connected by undersea cables.
Africa is the least connected of all the continents. Many countries have no cross-border communications links, meaning calls have to be routed through Europe. Most countries in the central and eastern parts of the continent have no direct access to submarine cable systems, which means phone calls and Internet access is provided via expensive satellite connections.
Chasia's job is to help rectify the problem by working with governments, regulators, development agencies and telecom operators to develop inter country, intra-country and global connectivity. Without the cheap communications links, Africa's economic growth is stunted.
The soft-spoken Chasia has, however, drawn his fair share of criticism, particularly over plans to give governments a big say over the development and management of new, pan-African systems.
Discord has already erupted between Nepad and the World Bank over the best approach to wiring the continent. Chasia denies there is an ideological rift over the construction of submarine telecom cables around Africa.
But the World Bank, through its private-sector investment arm, the International Finance Corp (IFC), actively supports private enterprise in the developing world. Nepad, on the other hand, sees a role for "all sectors of society", including governments.
"The market by itself won't solve the problems," he says. "Clearly, where the market becomes more mature, you need to let the market do the job."
Though Chasia denies it, one is left with the distinct impression that ideology lies at the heart of the disagreements with the World Bank. The Bank is backing the US$280m East Africa Submarine System (Eassy), a telecom cable that will be built along Africa's east coast. The IFC will make available $32,5m in funding to African private-sector operators wanting to invest in the project.
But Eassy has come under fire from Nepad and SA's department of communications for, they say, replicating the governance system of the high-priced Sat-3/Safe system that connects SA with Europe and Asia. Eassy, Chasia says, will not result in prices falling to the extent necessary to foster economic development. Rather, it will replicate the Sat-3 control structure, keeping prices high. The World Bank has rejected this accusation, pointing out that Eassy subscribes to open and nondiscriminatory principles.
Mohsen Khalil, director of information & communications technology at the World Bank, told the FM in September that "it should not be governments leading [these projects]. The market always does it better than a government agency."
The operators backing Eassy have accused governments, under the auspices of Nepad, of trying to hijack the project.
Nepad, which had backed Eassy until the parties fell out, has since distanced itself from the project and is now backing a more ambitious, $2bn system which, if built, will encircle the continent and be one of the biggest such systems in the world. Part of the proposed new system is likely to comprise the $650m Sea cable, to be constructed by privately held Seacom, though it's not yet clear where the funding for the remainder of the system will come from.
The Sea cable, which has the backing of second network operator Neotel, will run along Africa's east coast from SA to India and to Europe. Seacom has apparently acceded to Nepad's conditions.
Chasia says nondiscriminatory, open access networks are essential if prices of communications in Africa are to fall to the levels seen elsewhere in the world. Competition alone, he says, is not sufficient to achieve this in a continent where the average cost of an international E1 (2 Mbit/s) line is $5 000/month compared with $10-20/month in Europe and North America.
"The World Bank should open its mind and ask if this is the project that will solve our problems in Africa," he says. "The Bank is trying to help but can you imagine a situation where you will have a poor African country repaying a loan that will last 30 years, paying for something that will be overtaken by events?"
Chasia says he is open to discussions with the World Bank but warns that the organisation won't be allowed to "dictate what happens" in Africa.
"They have to work with what the governments here want to do. If they have views, they can discuss those views with us. It's not a good thing to have foreign people come in and tell us what to do. "
He says it would be intolerable for Nepad to support a system which would result in the exploitation of African consumers by commercial operators in the way that consortium members in Sat-3 have done.
But a rift appears to have opened between some African countries over Nepad's approach. Chasia denies that there is an ideological split between African states. But only 12 of the 23 participating countries have signed the Nepad broadband protocol and only three have ratified it. "You could say it's very bad that 11 didn't sign but you could also look at it and say that 12 signed," he says. He expects more countries will sign the protocol down the line.
Meanwhile, signatories to the protocol are promising that at least one leg of the Nepad submarine network will be in place in 2009, in time to carry television signals from the 2010 soccer World Cup.
But time is running out – and Chasia will know that his reputation is on the line.
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