Vice President Atiku Abubakar on 22 February stated that African leaders have established an electronic-based Africa Commission (e-Africa Commission) to promote the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) initiatives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

He disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the three-day Afrinet 2005 Summit in Abuja, which has as its theme, “Sustaining the Growth of ICT Access in Africa.”

Abubakar reiterated the role of ICT, especially the Internet, in advancing crucial areas like “health, education and research, agriculture, tourism, infrastructure and software development, and governance,” and maintained that “it is, therefore, necessary to identify how we can fully utilise ICTs in our peculiar situation.”

He went on to explain that the Commission will:

• Provide a submarine fibre optic cable to link East African countries
• Provide broadband fibre optic links from landlocked countries to submarine cable landing stations to connect all 54 African countries, and with the rest of the world
• Provide an overlay satellite network to connect outlying areas where NEPAD projects require telecommunications links
• Develop a rationalised system of terrestrial fibre optic cables that provide an economical, yet robust, network
• Establish an e-learning project in association with African Virtual University, which would result in the transformation of all primary and secondary schools in Africa into e-schools by 2015.

An e-school initiative, Abubakar noted, would produce generations of Africans that are well attuned to the demands of the global information society.

He commended African leaders for recognising the importance of a good information and communication infrastructure, without which Africa would be marginalised in the global socioeconomic arena.