August-September 2002 - Volume1, Issue 5

The influencing factors of ICT Development in Ethiopia

Ato Solomon Berhanu born in 1945, went to Asfa Wossen High School. He joined the highway authority, upon completion of his third year of University Education. He served as head of the data processing branch with the Authority. He then joined Buroughs Computers and NCR Corporation as Assistant Territory Manager for Ethiopia and Systems Services and Education are respectively. He currently holds three portfolios for separate entities including manager for Melat Computers.

ICT Focus: As a veteran ICT professional, what is your view of the progress of ICT in Ethiopia?

Ato Solomon Berhanu: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made an impressive progress in Ethiopia since its introduction in the early 1960's with unit-record equipment. Mainframe computers came into the picture in the mid 60's when the then Imperial Ethiopian Highway Authority, the Ethiopian Airlines, the Telecommunications Authority and the Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority bought and/or rented the IBM mainframe computers.

These mainframe computers did little beyond computing a couple of vital information like payroll, billing and accounting, because, in all the user organizations no one was aware of their vast computing potentials. The programmers and operators were ignorant about the data processing requirements of their respective organizations. Likewise, the management and concerned personnel were not aware of the data processing capability of the computers at hand. A case in mind was the procurement of a cash register in one government organization to process accounting work, that I witnessed, despite the limited workload the mainframe had computing just a payroll application. No one was sure about the capability of the big computer to compute accounting.

In most organizations, procuring expensive ICT equipment was more of prestige rather than appreciation of its use. Thus, it was no wonder to acquire a Birr 500,000.00 to Birr One million worth of mainframe for inadequate usage.

The development of telecommunication infrastructure from manual operation to semi-automatic and automatic operation, then to full automatic operation, wire cable usage to optical fibers, microwave linkage and satellite communication, is also an interesting trend worth mentioning.

ICT has also played a vital role, in the media, the medical sector, air transport, and many electronics related areas that call for an expert review in each field.

With the exception of the hybrid computer users for scientific research purposes in the developed countries of Western Europe and America, the mainframe computers used in Ethiopia were of almost equal caliber with the rest of the world. When it comes to utilization, the Ethiopian figure was not averaging beyond 20%.

The mid 70s showed us the mini-computers that were significantly smaller than the mainframes, yet more flexible, powerful and cheaper in price. The monopoly of the Ethiopian market by IBM Corporation dwindled; and competing companies like Burroughs Machines (Unisys), NCR Corporation, Hewlett Packard (HP) started to penetrate into the Ethiopian Market. NCR was in the top list with its 8200 series until the early 80s when the HP group outsmarted them by replacing quite a few of the NCR installations by HP 3000 series.

NCR had an excellent strategy in the mid 70s to penetrate the little tapped computer market of Ethiopia. They believed that the decision makers, who are in the top and middle management, were the stumbling block in almost all the organizations because of their illiteracy in computers. Thus, free orientation courses were offered to these groups. Not only did they then advocated the procurement of mini computers for their respective organizations, but they were pro-NCR in their selection of equipment and training in programming languages was a reason for the success of NCR.
Personal Computers (PC) came into the market starting from the mid 80s. It was difficult to convince managers of different organizations to replace their typewriters with PCs. Electric typewriters cost about Birr 15,000.00 while the multi-function PCs with long-carriage dot-matrix printers were costing about the same price. A series of training and programmes continued for the next ten years until the new market economic policy made its impact on ICT products.

Now, PCs are everywhere, thanks to the training centers and sales outlets that mushroomed in town. Over one hundred training centers are registered so far. The ICT sales outlets are also within reach for every interested body. Internet cafes were springing up before the government started its discouraging action. Other African countries, who were way behind us a couple of decades ago, have now plenty of Internet Service Providers (ISP) while our Telecommunications Agency, with its monopolistic attitude, is tightening its control instead of expressing leniency. Recent newsbreak about China closing 17,000 of the Internet cafes came as a real surprise to me. 17,000? Out of how many? Does the number of Internet cafes reach 17 in Ethiopia? I just wonder.

ICT Focus: Do you believe that Ethiopia has produced a competitive and marketable workforce in the ICT field during the last three decades?

Ato Solomon Berhanu: Ethiopia has definitely produced a competitive and marketable workforce in the ICT field during the last three decades. The pace was not that fast. It was the affordability of Personal Computers that helped many youngsters throughout the world to come up with innovative ideas by way of operating systems, programming languages, networking facilities, graphics and animation designs. Ethiopia was no exception. She joined the bandwagon in the last decade while there was no eye-catching marketable workforce produced in the ICT field in the previous two decades.

Nowadays, we do have a number of experts in the field. Over 20 Ethiopic software developers have come up with their own respective version of fonts and keyboard font management software, each one not coping up with the other (an effort is being made to tally all under Unicode). Network experts, web-site designers and the like are in good number. Specialized software developers are picking up. Though their number is not as significant as from India and the Middle East, we see a few of Ethiopian systems analysts and software developers liaising with the western world with their competitive applications.

ICT technicians are also contributing their share by way of maintaining expensive factory gadgets here and there. The country is saving a significant amount of foreign exchange from such repair and maintenance workshops, The innovative works by the Cuban returnees are a case in mind. Not only do they give proficient technical services at various factories and industrial outlets here, but they also come up with lots of original ideas by building new circuit boards and related electronic replacements.

ICT Focus: It is said that a strong ICT Policy based on the objective needs of the country could be a powerful instrument for the development of ICT. Do you share this view point? In your view, who should be the key players for the development of ICT in Ethiopia?

Ato Solomon Berhanu: With globalization as the norm of the day, and ICT transcending national and international boundaries, Ethiopia could not afford to be exclude from the rest of the world. A strong ICT policy should be introduced, not only based on the objective needs of the county, but also on the global realities, requirements and trends for survival in the global village that calls for economic and social integration. ….
Read the full Interview in ICT Focus Magazine