INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2.1 THE AFRICAN CONTEXT

As witnesses to the all-important struggle between the developed countries, African States have increasingly felt the need not to be left out of the Information Technology race. They were all aware of the need to:

i/ Do all within their power to draw maximum benefit from the use of computers

ii/ Build domestic capacity for computer operation by training local manpower

iii/ Persuade and possibly compel the civil service, parastatals and the private sector to comply with specific guidelines laid down for computerization

iv/ Explore the possibility of eventually setting up a computer manufacturing industry. This required putting in place flexible structures and procedures.

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, aadinar@mail.sas.upenn.edu