Transcript The Problem - Economics Association of Zambia

The ICT Sector in Zambia
Overview & Investment Perspective
Presented by:
Ministry of Communications and Transport
Presentation Format
Background

Policy & Legal Framework

Telecommunications
Infrastructure

Human Resource

Broadband Connectivity
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Investment Opportunities

Conclusion
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Background
Zambia being surrounded by eight (08) neighbouring countries makes a natural
hub for telecommunications

The Communications Sector contributes significantly to the country’s GDP. The
rapid growth in the Communications sector can be attributed to increased investment
and innovation in information and communication technologies.

The Mobile Communications sector has triggered access to
communications across the country.

Over 4 million mobile phone customers in a population of about 12
Million
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There is still room for growth in the ICT Sector in Zambia
Background Continued
Market Mix

•GSM Mobile
•Fibre Optic connectivity
•Internet Services
•Fixed
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Major Market Players
•ZAMTEL (Incumbent – under privatization)
•ZAIN Zambia (part of ZAIN Group)
•MTN Zambia (part of the MTN Group)
Policy & Legal Framework
POLICY:
Zambia launched the National Information and Communication Technology
Policy on 28th March 2007. The document provides guidelines for the
development and growth of the sector and is readily available at the Ministry
of Transport and Communication or the Ministry’s website
(www.mct.gov.zm). The Policy focuses on Competition as well as
Convergence of Technologies and Services.
Legal Framework:
A new regulatory framework based on convergence and guided by
technology-neutrality has been developed
Information and Communications Act of 2009
Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2009
Postal Services Act 2009

The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA
formerly Communications Authority of Zambia) regulates the sector.
Telecom Infrastructure

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Zambia is rolling out Fibre to provide effective national broadband
connectivity.
Currently there are three Zambian companies that have been licensed to
operate as national Carrier of Carriers and have opted to lay fiber optics
as a technology of choice. These are ZESCO (www.zesco.co.zm) ,
Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) (www.cec.com.zm) and Zamtel
(www.zamtel.zm).
ZESCO has completed laying about 1200km from Sesheke in Western
Province via Livingstone-Lusaka- Ndola-Kitwe-Chingola-Solwezi to
Lumwana in North Western Province. CEC has done about 520km of
fibre connecting all Copperbelt towns. ZAMTEL is in the process of
completing the installation of the countrywide fibre while the
Metropolitan project in Lusaka has been completed.
A Complete countrywide installation to form the core backbone requires
about 3,700km of fibre. ZESCO and CEC fibre is available at 2.5Gbps.
The entire network is to connect Zambia to the undersea cables. Zambia
is already connected to the SAT 3 cable through the Zesco cable on the
West coast of Africa via Namibia. There are plans to interconnect with
the rest of the neighbouring countries in future.
Human Resource

Human Capacity:
• The University of Zambia and Copperbelt University
have been producing a number graduates in ICT on
a yearly basis locally. However the number of
graduates trained per year are still low.
• A number of colleges registered by Technical
Education and Vocational Education Training
Authority (TEVETA) are producing much higher
outputs at certificate and diploma levels based
mainly on the Institute of Management Information
Systems (UK) syllabus.
• High school graduates are even more.
Broadband Connectivity

Bandwidth:
• The ICT sector in Zambia uses both fixed
and wireless broadband internet access.
There are a number of players in the market
but there is a lot of scope for investment.
Investment Opportunities
Call Centres
•
Utility companies and Telecom companies run their own Call Centres.
Currently only one private call centre is operational, so there is huge
potential for further investment on account of:
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Geographical position of Zambia
Good educational levels with excellence in English language in Africa
Excellent world relations with many countries (America, Europe, Asia)
Manufacture of ICT equipment
Zambia is promoting the development and manufacture of ICT
products in the country as a way of creating hi-tech industries in
line with the country’s Vision 2030 which aims at
making Zambia a middle income nation.
Zambia has established Multi-Facility Economic Zones to facilitate the development of HiTech parks for skills and software development.
Roll out of ICTs to Rural Areas.
Opportunities to roll out ICTs in the rural areas exist through the PPP model.
Zambia recently launched a National PPP Policy to encourage investment in
such key sectors as ICT
Conclusion
The ICT Sector in Zambia has seen accelerated investment over the past 5-8
years

The National ICT Policy and new legal framework is designed to match
world standards and practice in telecommunications.
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Human capital in ICT is increasing fast through training from the both
public and private sector

There is still room for investment in the uncovered population particularly
Internet provision and manufacture of ICT equipment.
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Huge investments in the Mining and manufacturing sectors are triggering
the high demands for ICT services and human resource
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Zambia’s geographic position offers a huge potential to connect to
neighbouring countries thus becoming a regional hub.
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Thank you