Connect Africa Closes – Now We’re Listening

If you want the official view, head over to the ITU’s website, where you can read all three press releases from the event. For TelecomTV’s own take, then read on.

I asked the question last Monday; “Connect Africa opens – But is Anyone Listening?” and boy did I take some flak. But I stand by what I said. Where were the so-called International Telecoms press? You all know the magazines and websites, there’s no need to name and shame here, but where were they during this very important event? Not in Kigali, that’s for sure. There were plenty of local African newspapers and TV present, plus regional bureaus of some of the major global news organisations, and the ITU had organised excellent Eurovision video feeds. Not enough for an event such as this. As I said; is anyone listening?

True, the expense and logistics of getting to Rwanda would put off many, but there are usually a few equipment vendors willing to pay the way for impoverished journalists. Then again, maybe the vendors weren’t all that bothered. Surely Connect Africa was just a talking shop for politicians, and vendors just had to show cursory interest in order to protect their long-term contracts? Some may well have taken this view, but it was good to see Ericsson putting on a fine show – despite the recent financial turmoil, CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg showed up and stayed the course.

The World Bank and the GSM Association also threw their weight behind the event. In fact, the ITU’s headline on its closing press release, “US$55 billion committed to connect Africa”, said it all – those two organisations between them accounted for $52 billion of that total. The balance is a little difficult to determine, and as I’m currently on a flight out of Africa I can’t get clarification from the ITU.

The GSMA’s Development Fund had organised a trip to see one of its successful e-health projects, inviting a number of vendors along. What a shame that the only people to show up were TelecomTV. What were these vendors up to? Hard at work in the conference sessions perhaps? The World Bank also put on a trip, but as it was the day after the summit closed, we were unable to attend and report.

Whilst still on the negatives, and before switching to the positives (which I will do soon), time for some clarification. The Rwandan government asked me what I meant by saying that the ITU’s media team were “sidelined” on the first day. Quite simply, it meant that the ITU media team were somewhat taken aback when the gathered press, all of whom had their shiny photographic badges, discovered that they were not allowed into the keynote address. Something to do with the wrong colour badges… Add to this the occasional shrugging of shoulders and eyes to the sky when asked questions (such as the all important “is there lunch?” and “any chance of coffee, tea, water…?”). This is, of course, par for the course (pun intended) when dealing with governments and political delegations, and no jibe at the Rwandan authorities – I have the utmost respect for them, and applaud what they are doing in the country, and wish others in Africa would follow their lead.

Sidelined (my opinion) on day one they might have been, but the team did a great job in trying to sort out the accommodation mess. We were not alone in having our hotels cancelled and no replacements made (until four hours before we landed in the country), and the media team did wonders to try and keep us all happy (I really do hope that the 26-strong delegation of one Head of State enjoyed their stay at the Serena, and that maybe one day we too will be able to enjoy that hotel’s amenities). Neither were we alone in having eight of our cases go missing (including all of our broadcast camera equipment – a public thank-you to the people at the Rwandan Film Festival for loaning us their gear), the airline folk even managed to lose the all-important make-up case of a high-profile journalist who shall remain anonymous…

This may sound fun and amusing, but it was a bloody inconvenience to all concerned, and distract from maters at hand.