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Dr. Henry Chasia bows out | 20 April 2010 |

By Gilles Eric FOADEY 

After 9 years at the helm of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, Dr. Henry Chasia has bowed out to enjoy his retirement. He will be remembered as a fore-runner among Africans who, from very early on, have worked hard to bridge the digital divide.

Elected Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 1994, Dr. Chasia spent more than six years in Geneva before being appointed the first Executive Deputy Chairperson of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, of which he was an active founding member, in 2001.

The e-Africa Commission was set up in October 2001 by African Ministers responsible for ICTs. In September 2002, after NEPAD was established, the Steering Committee of NEPAD decided to adopt the e-Africa Commission as the NEPAD task team in charge of managing the structured development of ICTs in the African continent within the NEPAD context.

The NEPAD e-Africa Commission is presently presided over by the CEO of NEPAD and is run on a day-to-day basis by an Executive Deputy Chairperson. This responsibility fell to Dr. Chasia for almost nine years.

With about 10 identified areas of competence ranging from ICT infrastructure and development, local content, software development, to human development, capacity building and e-strategies in the fields of governance, health and education, the Secretariat of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission first focused on two priority programmes, namely the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Programme and the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative, both adopted as priority projects by the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee in 2003.

For Dr. Chasia, this decision by the Heads of State certainly responds to the diptych that is so close to his heart, i.e. that we need well-trained young people to have access to the infrastructure and applications that they offer. This certainly explains the concentration of efforts in the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network and the e-Schools Initiative.

The general objective of the Initiative is to master new technologies to improve the quality of teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools in Africa, with a view to providing African youths with knowledge and skills which will allow them to fully participate, confidently and efficiently, in the information society and knowledge economy.

As of today, on the ground, the initiative can be seen in 16 African countries. It is now a question of replicating it in the rest of the continent by entrenching the initiative, providing harmonious training for teachers and establishing a pedagogical portal.

After many unsuccessful attempts, the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network is now beginning to take shape. The purpose of the Network is to connect African countries to one another and, in turn, to the rest of the world through existing and planned submarine cable systems. The primary aim of the program is to integrate the continent so that commercial, social and cultural exchanges are easier and cheaper. Made up of two segments, submarine (Uhurunet) and terrestrial (Umojanet). Once the network is in place it will offer the following advantages to the people of the continent:

• Abundant broadband capacity which will reduce the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world, as well as between African countries.
• Much cheaper regional and international communications, which will allow affordable access to communication services to more people throughout the continent.
• Reliability and enhanced quality of regional and international connectivity.

All in all, Dr. Chasia should be pleased to witness the Western segment of Uhurunet come into existence through the presence and participation of NEPAD in the ACE Consortium linking Europe to Africa on the West Coast. From now on it will be the responsibility of his successor to finalize and realize his dream of connecting Africa.

Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, the NEPAD CEO and Chairman of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, has no doubt that the NEPAD e-Africa Commission team “will improve by giving its best”. However, there are enormous challenges ahead.

With the integration of NEPAD into the AU structures and its subsequent transformation into a Planning and Coordinating Agency, it will be up to the actors of the new NEPAD Agency, together with the Secretariat of the e-Africa Commission, to make sure that the cross-cutting aspect of ICTs in NEPAD’s programs are indeed taken into account. For this to happen, intelligent integration that facilitates the continuation of the Commission’s projects and programs are much needed. No doubt that the meeting of the e-Africa Commission’s governance bodies which will be held in Dakar, Senegal, on 7 and 9 June will look closely at this issue.

Ultimately, and according to the words of Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the NEPAD Agency, we should “clearly recognize Dr. Chasia’s immense contribution to NEPAD and to the continent in the ICT field” and “build on the legacy handed down” through his service.

For the time being, Mr. Adama Deen, NEPAD Transport Infrastructure Advisor, is acting in the place of Dr. Henry Chasia to manage the daily running of the Secretariat of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission pending the recruitment of his successor, in accordance with the norms and procedures of the AU.