NICI
Plan
In October 2000,
Burkina Faso's Council of Ministers approved a National
Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) development plan. This was
following a national workshop to validate the plan. The plan addressed, among others:
computerization of
the state/administration
reinforcement of
the national capacities and the quality of training and research
improvement of the
economic potentials
development of
community communication centers
infrastructure
development
Telecommunications
Structure and Policy
Office national des
Télécommunications (ONATEL) is the sole
provider of telecommunication services. Currently, there is no independent regulator.
ONATEL is responsible for approval of terminal equipment, rural telecom development,
frequency allocation, and numbering plans. A draft legal and regulatory framework was adopted by the
Governemnt on 24 June 1998 and by the National Assembly on 4 December 1998 under No.
051/98/AN.
ONATEL used to have
a legal monopoly in the provision of all telecommunication services except for the
Internet. However, a call for tenders for the issue of two licences for the installation
and operation of GSM cellular mobile netowrks was made on 15 December 1999. Two operators
(Telcel International and MSI-CI) were selected by the Government. A new government plan
for the telecommunication sector is due for release in 1999. A liberalization law program
was submitted to the National Assembly on the 3rd of December, 1998. It is
predicted that in the context of liberalized telecommunication sector plans, privatization
of ONATEL will be implemented in 1999.
The
International Telecommunication Union is currently providing ad hoc assistance in planning
mobile radio cellular telephone network, as well as assistance in the restructuring of the
telecommunication sector and in the drafting of a revised telecom law. Assistance for
fellowships for training in installation of fibre optic cables is also being carried out.
Finally, fellowships assistance for shipping cost of second-hand PCs is also implemented.
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ICT
Networking Development
The Délégation générale à
l’informatique (DELGI) is the government body responsible for national
ICT policy. The Université de Ouagadougou’s École supérieure
d’informatique is closely linked to DELGI and is the leading institution on
academic and research sector in the country on ICTs.
In March 1997,
DELGI and ONATEL held a national workshop on the development of the national information
society in Burkina Faso, assisted by the International Institute for Communication and
Development (IICD) and ORSTOM. The workshop resulted in a detailed and wide-ranging
national plan for the increased use of ICTs up until the year 2000. Along the line of the
African Information Society Initiative (AISI) framework, this include networking the major
government departments and assisting them with content and applications development for
information management within the government, information dissemination to the public, and
networking of schools.
The International
Development Research Centre of Canada is presently supporting the effort of DELGI
in setting up a place within the national policy, the design and deployment of community
information centres. The objective of the community information centres is to widen the
access of ICTs to a large majority of citizen who does not fall within the current sector
of information policy structure (particularly the informal sector in the urban areas and
marginalized rural communities). The project will also propose these segments of the
population to adapt the services to their specific needs.
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ICT Partners and
Projects
- National ICT Roundtable Burkina Faso
(IICD)
- Appui en bureaucratique au
ministère des affaires étrangeres du Burkina Faso (Canadian International Development
Agency)
- Information Technologies for
Development (World Trade Organization)
Source: http://www.bellanet.org/gkaims/
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