South African Business 2018 edition

OVERVIEW Information and

OVERVIEW Information and communications technology A rural network is providing free local calls. SECTOR INSIGHT Barclays Africa Group spent R3.1-billion on ICT in 2016. • Farmers and Vodacom are working on a sheeptracking collar. The biggest spenders on information communications technology (ICT) are banks and other financial institutions. Existing banks may have large customer bases but agile new competitors are able to do without branch infrastructure and can connect directly with clients via mobile phones and other devices. The financial sector is responding via large investments in fintech. One example is Barclays Africa Group’s expenditure of R3.1-billion on ICT in 2016. The Big Four banks spent R30-billion in the year to June 2016, with Standard Bank laying out R14-billion in that period (Tech Central). Companies in the sector are also spending heavily to stay ahead in terms of technology. By way of example, Vodacom has spent approximately R577-million over three years in the province of Limpopo alone. South Africa’s appetite for fast Internet connectivity is growing fast. The state-owned company Telkom controls most of the country’s fibre cable but several smaller private companies are winning contracts to lay fibre-optic cables around the country. The Mail & Guardian reported in April 2016 that “nimble new entrants” such as Vumatel, Fibrehoods, Link Africa (which runs its network in the sewerage system, obviating the need to dig new trenches) and Dark Fibre Africa are forcing the bigger telecommunications companies to up their game. With faster Internet speeds, customers could switch away from subscriber television services. Allowing access to the Internet to rural people and poorer people in urban areas is a policy priority. Access in South Africa is improving all the time. As part of its mandate, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has seen to it that various private operators have connected more than 623 schools around the country. The Western Cape Provincial Government and Neotel will roll out 384 Wi-Fi hotspots in public areas, and is aiming for complete coverage by 2019. Private companies like Vodacom allocate specific budget items to rural access and in September 2017 it announced that it would zero-rate its services for university student and staff who are Vodacom subscribers. To illustrate the vastly different uses to which technology can be put, Vodacom is also developing an affordable sheep-tracking collar with farmers in the Eastern Cape. There are also city programmes such as the TshWifi (Tshwane), a SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2018 126

OVERVIEW free service available in 780 zones such as libraries, educational institutions and clinics and libraries. More than 1 500km of network fibre has been rolled out in Gauteng province since 2014. A total of 3 000 access sites should be connected by 2020. The Small Enterprise Development Agency runs ICT incubators in several parts of South Africa. The SoftstartBTI ICT incubator is in Midrand and Tuksnovation, a high-tech incubator, is at Pretoria University. In the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality there is the SEDA Nelson Mandela Bay ICT Incubator (SNII). A new research and development laboratory was established by SNII in 2016, focussing on apps, mechanical and technical prototypes, and software solutions. SNII also hosted a national conference on “Universal Affordable Access to Communications in South Africa” in 2016. An example of what can be done to reduce telecommunication costs in rural areas was presented by the University of the Western Cape, who teamed up with the Mankosi community in a rural part of the Eastern Cape to create the Zenzeleni Network. This is essentially a community telecoms company where local calls are free, data is considerably cheaper and calls to other networks are half the normal cost. The Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) is providing connectivity for schools in five provinces and smart devices have been distributed to schools. Incentives relevant to companies and educational bodies in the ICT sector are available from the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) and include: • The Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP): companies and educational institutions working to improve technology; 50/50 cost sharing grant to a maximum of R8-million • Technology Development Fund: the Technology Innovation Agency makes up to R50-million available for up to 10 years • Technology Venture Capital: managed by the Industrial Development Corporation; commercialisation of innovative products, processes and technologies. The National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) was originally created to develop skills for the broadcasting environment, but is now being integrated with eSkills Network and the Institute for Satellite and Software Applications (ISSA) to form Ikamva National e-Skills Institute (iNeSI). The focus is on developing e-skills capacity by creating partnerships that guide e-skills initiatives. There are many opportunities for employment in the sector. It is ironic that in a country with a very high unemployment rate, the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) in 2016 put the number of vacancies in software and application development, cloud computing and information security at 40 000 (Sunday Times). Training is available from organisations such as the Quad Digital Academy, a Standard Bank initiative, an ICT Incubator in Port Elizabeth run by the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) and from the City of Johannesburg (which runs a digital intern programme called COJEDI). Scarce skills training is offered by the City of Cape Town (in partnership with SAP Africa) in software programming. The programme is called “Western Cape Skills for Africa”. ONLINE RESOURCES Ikamva National eSkills Institute: www.enesi.org.za Independent Communications Authority: www.icasa.org.za State Information Technology Agency: www.sita.co.za Technology Innovation Agency: www.tia.org.za 127 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2018