The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Business Sweden - Swedish Trade and Invest Council, and communications group Ericsson on Thursday partnered to drive the development of information and communications technology (ICT) in sub-Saharan Africa.

The parties joined forces to strengthen and facilitate the development of the sector through knowledge sharing, assistance with the alignment of a country’s ICT aims and policies, and the promotion of collaboration between African countries and Sweden.

Business Sweden facilitated international business opportunities for Swedish companies.

Business Sweden trade commissioner Olov Hemström outlined a two-year programme of seminars and workshops, facilitating the gathering of key government stakeholders and representatives of Swedish companies, as well as stakeholders from the trade, ICT, energy and infrastructure sectors in ten sub-Saharan Africa countries.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership at the Embassy of Sweden, in Pretoria, South Africa, he said the series initially started in November in Lagos, Nigeria, and would be followed by workshops in Accra, Ghana, during April, and Luanda, Angola, in May.

Uganda and Kenya would be visited in September followed by South Africa in October. Next year, the parties would host seminars in Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire/Nigeria, Mozambique/South Africa and Zambia/Zimbabwe.

Ericsson former head of the sub-Saharan Africa region Lars Linden said the workshops would be a “good vehicle to spread the gospel” and table suggestions and ideas on the most efficient ways of developing the sector, ensuring investment through aligned technology policies and the roles each party could successfully play.

The partnership, which would be funded mainly through Ericsson and the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry, would benefit both Africa and Sweden, he said.

Hemström cited ICT investment as contributing 30% to the gross domestic product (GDP) in the US during 2010 and between 30% and 60% of the GDP in many European Union countries in the period 2000 to 2009.

The aim was to duplicate this success in Africa with the aid of strategic partnerships.

Sweden had been undertaking technology development for a long time and it was now “time for Africa”, Hemström said, adding that the continent also held several opportunities for small and medium-sized Swedish companies.

“ICT is one of Sweden´s key industries and has made Sweden the top-ranked country globally in terms of connectivity, e-governance and ICT innovations,” the Ministry pointed out in a statement.

The experience and knowledge of the small country would bode well for African countries.

Sweden’s digital economy and Internet accessibility were top in the world, while its ICT structure achieved the world’s highest penetration rates.

The country of nine-million people boasted a 92% Internet penetration; mobile penetration of 135% - of these 44% used their mobile device for Internet access as well; and 20% fixed broadband penetration.

The ICT industry created a “large share” of the employment in Sweden and there was potential for a similar effect in Africa.

Ericsson head of the sub-Saharan Africa region Fredrik Jejdling reiterated that for every 1 000 new connections, 80 jobs were created; the doubling of connection speeds added 0.3 percentage points to GDP; and for every 10% rise in mobile and broadband penetration, 1% was added to the GDP of a country.

Sweden's Ambassador to South Africa Anders Hagelberg said that despite conflict and turmoil in some regions of Africa, the majority of the countries in Africa held positive and significant development opportunities.

Sub-Saharan Africa held seven of the world's ten fastest-growing economies and, over the past five years, recorded a compound annual growth rate of 40%.

The region – currently the second-largest mobile market in the world – was expected to surpass the US in terms of Internet penetration through its leapfrog into a rapidly growing mobile market.

It was expected that by 2015, 250-million of the current one-billion-strong African population would browse the Internet. Further, Africa was expected to be home to 1.5-billion young people by 2040, Hemström added.

Hagelberg added that South Africa and Sweden held strong links dating back decades and, post-1994, as South Africa emerged from apartheid, Sweden established strong developmental support.

Sweden now aimed to use South Africa as a platform and operational base, owing to its infrastructure, “think-tanks” and associated Africa-wide perspectives, to broaden its development and business into Africa.

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