African IT Professionals form Pan-African Federation

By Peter Musa

African Information Technology (IT) professionals that attended the annual African IT forum at St. John's College, Cambridge, UK from throughout Africa have decided to co-operate in creating improved training and other IT standards in the region.

The main highlight of the conference was the repeated calls by three prominent IT professionals from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya for the creation of the African Information Systems Federation. Delegates unanimously adopted the the proposal which states that the federation will be "chartered with the responsibility of promoting professionalism in the information systems industry throughout Africa." The Federation will also seek to link IT professionals throughout the continent, either via the national professional bodies or directly when such bodies do not exist. The Federation would also assist in the  establishment of such bodies wherever needed.

The proposal was sponsored by Dr. Adebayo Akinde, first Vice President of the Computer Association of Nigeria; Peter Davies, President of the Computer Society of South africa; and Dr. John Onunga, Chairman of the IT Standards Association of Kenya. Dr. Akinde while proposing the the formation of the federation, emphasised that it was vital to focus on achievable objectives so that Information Systems (IS) practioners throughout the region could immediately gain benefits from the the organisation. "For that reason it would concentrate initially on developing descriptive standards of various information systems job categories in Africa. These descriptive standards will cover the entry level knowledge, appropriate training, education and experience levels that are required for competence in a number of specific IS jobs." The three proposers will form the Federation's convening committee and are planning an initial open meeting next year to discuss the formulation of other achievable objectives. Representatives from professional associations in all African countries will be invited to attend. Meanwhile Dr. Akinde has been asked to co-ordinate the meeting.

The African IT Exhibitions & Conferences (AITEC), who hosted the IT forum has offered to act as a secretariat for the federation. Sean Moroney, AITEC's Chief Executive and Publisher of Computers & Communications in Africa said, "we are very pleased with this development." Moroney continued, "for a long time now we have been aware of the urgent need to develope regional co-operation in order to increase IT standards, lobby governments for better IT policies and promote IT education. It is very gratifying to have this initiative grow out of AITEC's annual IT forum and we will do our utmost to make our resources available for the effective growth of the federation. The fact that it is an initiative backed by key people from professional bodies in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa means that it already has Pan-African participation and commitment."

The theme for this year's African IT forum was, "IT for Sustained Development in Africa" and over20 presentations were made on management and strategy issues related to computing and telecommunications in Africa. The over 100 delegates that turned up for the conference came from Kenya, India, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia, the Netherlands, Gambia, Sweden, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Sierra Leone, France the UK and the USA. The Forum was preceded by a one-day E-mail workshop attended by 50 practitioners from Africa and around the world who shared information on their local telephone tariffs with other African countries, and then had practical e-mail demonstrations. Managers attending this year's forum were thoroughly briefed by the UK's National Computing Centre.

IT professionals in Cameroon are yet to recognise the important role the annual event plays as none of them have so far participated in any of the Forums. In any case, it is hoped that they shall take advantage of this annual come together of Africa's top IT professionals by attending the 1995 conference scheduled for 20 - 22 September 1995 in Cambridge. "Feedback from the delegates was that Cambride was an ideal venue and that they would prefer to travel to the UK. In many cases it is cheaper to travel to the UK than from West to East Africa, for example," said Moroney.

It should be noted that AITEC is a driving force in the promotion of IT across Africa. Each year, it organises conferences and exhibitions on IT in many African countries. This year, there have been AITEC events in Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. As from 12 - 14 October 1994 it organised Africa's biggest ever computer networking exhibition and conference in Johannesburg. Over 8,000 visitors were expected to visit NetWorld Africa - the exhibition, while 400 delegates from throughout Africa were expected to attend LANdaba - the conference.

The Herald No. 151

Thursday October 27 - 30, 1994