[kictanet] NEPAD e-Africa Commission aka e-Payment Gateway

[Alex Gakuru]

I lost my faith in NEPAD ages ago because of their protracted EASSy delays and in-fightings. Kenya's e-Transactions bill should help us avoid their next one;)

See most popular story "e-Transactions: stakeholders input needed"
<http://ictconsumers.org> 

I learn Internet Explorer users (version 6) are having a problem viewing-  meanwhile please use Firefox as we look for Windows-installed computers to  solve the problem. <http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/>



--- On Fri, 6/20/08, Lucy Kimani <lkimani at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Lucy Kimani <lkimani at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [kictanet] NEPAD e-Africa Commission aka e-Payment Gateway
> To: alex.gakuru at yahoo.com
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 4:32 PM
> We dont seem to learn!!! Why should each country for
> example Kenya not have its own e-payment gateway? Every
> time you involve third parties in transactions, you up the
> prices its basic economics 101 which makes one wonder
>  "that the cost of deploying this e-payment gateway
> is about US$100 million and is estimated to be more
> economical than if each country were to design and
> implement its own gateway." 
> Why is it so hard to get our act together, and amend the
> necessary laws so that e-transactions are legally
> recognized, and then let the private sector build the
> e-payment gateways!! 
>  
> In any case did anybody bother to shop around to find out
> how much an e-payment gateway actually costs, or was the
> above accepted as the gospel truth without facts?
>  
> NEPAD e-Africa Commission
> project progress is hailed
> The NEPAD e-Africa Commission Steering Committee held its
> 9th meeting on 11 June 2008 in Pretoria, South Africa and
> hailed progress made by the organisation on projects
> approved by the committee such as UHURUNET submarine cable,
> UMOJANET terrestrial cable, the Kigali Protocol, the NEPAD
> e-Schools Initiative and the NEPAD e-2010 Project.
> The meeting was attended by representatives from Botswana,
> Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa.
> Notable among them were Kenya High Commissioner to South
> Africa Tom Amolo; Muhammad Zannah, Minister (Political),
> Nigeria High Commission in South Africa; and Mamadou M.
> Seck, Director of NEPAD in Senegal.
> The meeting particularly took note of the NEPAD e-Schools
> Initiative stakeholders conference organised by the
> e-Africa Commission in Johannesburg, South Africa in April
> 2008 and the on-going activities with the various countries
> and agencies to develop this project.
> Progress on NEPAD e-2010 project
> The NEPAD e-2010 Project was approved by the 7th Steering
> Committee meeting in 2007 and since then progress has been
> made on development of the website portal, the software for
> the booking system, and the NEPAD Africa e-Payment Gateway.
> The Kenya Government, through its Tourist Trust, with which
> the NEPAD e-Africa Commission has been working closely on
> this project, provided funds and seconded a person to help
> with the establishment of the e-payment gateway in Kenya.
> NEPAD Africa e-Payment Gateway
> The NEPAD Africa e-Payment Gateway is an e-tourism project
> intended to benefit the African continent by reducing the
> costs of doing tourism business.
> The project will enable African citizens and small and
> medium sized enterprises (SMEs) of African countries to
> receive direct payments from anywhere in the world in a
> more cost effective and efficient way similar to that used
> in developed economies.
> The objective is to bring revenue directly into Africa
> using an African owned and operated infrastructure that
> will directly impact the GDP of African economies.
> Dr. Henry Chasia, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission Executive
> Deputy Chairperson, says that while engaging in this
> project the commission will seek to enhance policy and
> regulatory reforms to facilitate and accelerate electronic
> commerce.
> Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Director-General in the South African
> Department of Communications, and one of the executive
> committee members, emphasised the importance of the project
> to the South African Government in its efforts to ensure
> that all African countries participate in and benefit from
> the FIFA World Cup 2010 which is being hosted by South
> Africa.
> Says Ahmed Kassam, the project manager: “The project is
> intended to provide African businesses, citizens as well as
> governments with efficient and affordable access to
> electronic commerce platforms; and provide each country
> with the ability to increase tourism and SME sector
> revenues without incurring the high costs charged by
> existing third party platforms residing outside of Africa.
> “The project could secure e-tourism transactions by
> creating an escrow account that would hold the payment
> until the customer was satisfied.”
> The project is a joint partnership between African and
> international investors initially targeting the tourism
> sector but broad in scope to cater for the SMEs in other
> non-tourism sectors that do not have the resources to
> market and conduct electronic commerce through the
> internet. It is intended that African entities will hold
> the majority of shares in the venture.
> The NEPAD e-Africa Commission has already signed a
> Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Commonwealth
> Business Council (CBC) to support the design, development
> and roll-out of the gateway. The cost of deploying this
> payment gateway is about US$100 million and is estimated to
> be more economical than if each country were to design and
> implement its own gateway.
> The executive committee also resolved to convene an
> e-Africa Commission meeting in August, 2008. The commission
> consists of Ministers responsible for ICT, AU Commissioners
> for Infrastructure and Energy, and Human Resources, Science
> and Technology, the CEO of the NEPAD Secretariat and the
> Executive Deputy Chairperson of the NEPAD e-Africa
> Commission. It will be chaired by the Minister in charge of
> ICT in the country chairing the NEPAD Heads of State and
> Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC).
> For more information, contact:
> Samuel Mikenga
> Communications Manager
> NEPAD e-Africa Commission
> Email: SMikenga at eafricacommission.org
> Email: SamuelM at nepad.org
> Email: s.mikenga at paris.com
> Tel: +27 12 841 4523 (office)
> Cell: +27 725 296 769
> Fax: +27 12 841 4094
> Website:
> www.eafricacommission.org_______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
> 
> This message was sent to: alex.gakuru at yahoo.com
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alex.gakuru%40yahoo.com