From 9 to 13 August in Ghana, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) will hold the Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative (COMARCI). This is the CTO’s response to create ICT connectivity for rural and marginalised communities in Africa, through Public Private Peoples Partnerships formed through in-country capacity building workshops.
The CTO has so far held four very successful events of this series designed to bring together stakeholders to promote rural connectivity. In view of the challenges faced by Africa in connecting rural communities, this event always draws a large number of stakeholders from both, the public and private sectors. The last event in Zambia registered attendance of over 150 delegates, which included Ministers and regulators along with some global giants such as Intel and Motorola.
Following this event will be the CTO’s 5th connecting Rural Communities Africa Forum, held on 17 to 19 August in Accra, Ghana. Despite many attempts to bridge the digital divide in Africa, serious challenges still remain within the region due to the lack of infrastructure, the cost of bandwidth, low affordability and the lack of stakeholder will.
Hosted by the Ministry of Communications, National Communications Authority, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, the theme for the 2010 conference is Connecting rural Africa on a cost-effective, sustainable and profitable basis through Public Private Peoples Partnerships.
Key topics will focus on rural community communications networks, rural network technology optimisation and economics, local e-Content generation, Public Private Peoples Partnerships, USF initiatives to enhance rural communications, Narrowband and broadband application services, mobile banking and mobile money transfer, telecentres and ICT training.
The CTO has been running successful CRC conferences in Africa for four years and in Asia for three years.
For more information log onto www.cto.int
