Experts Make Case for Increased Internet Access, Berate Incessant Shutdowns

Participants at the 2019 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF19) have reemphasized call for increased attention on issues confronting the digital space in Africa.

The Forum which started on Tuesday, April 23 and ended on Thursday, April 25 has provided experts from 32 African countries and their partners from outside the continent the opportunity to compare notes and chart a new course for the digital space and economy on the continent.

The Forum, organised by Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African digital rights and inclusion social enterprise was held in Lagos.

The issues that dominated the conversation on April 23 of the Forum included low internet penetration and high digital illiteracy, internet censorship including shutdowns and data protection issues arising from rampant data collection by government agencies without data protection laws.

The tone for the Forum by the Opening Panel which was moderated by ‘Gbenga Sesan,  Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative and featuring Hawa Ba, the Head of Senegal Office of Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Segun Mausi, Head of Africa division at Human Rights Watch, and a Emmanuella Darkwah who was representing Ghana’s National Security Advisor.

Mausi Segun, Hawa Ba, ‘Gbenga Sesan and Emmanuealla Darkwah

The Panel explored the centrality of human rights to modern society and the need to dedicate resources and attention to the protection of human rights.

Hawa Ba highlighted the crucial role the internet has played in public education and mobilisation in Senegal and said it was important to ensure that the internet remained an open and safe platform.

Mausi Segun said all internet users have a duty to fight for the protection of digital rights and to make sure their government enables internet access for more citizens.

While according to Ghana’s Emmanuella Darkwah, Ghana was working on a law to make internet shutdown impossible in the country, also delegates from Togo, Chad and Cameroon bemoaned the ease with which their governments shut down the internet and specific internet services.

In Chad, a delegate reported, social media platforms have been unavailable for over a year now, making life unnecessarily harder for the people of the country.

The conversation on expanding internet access was not any less enlightening.

Dr Ernest Ndukwe, a former chief executive of the Nigerian Communication Commission, said “we need to focus more attention on what government can do to ensure people have access.

“One way to do that is for the civil society and citizens alike should commend governments doing the right thing in expanding access and criticise those doing poorly.”

Funke Opeke, the chief executive of MainOne Cable, reiterated the need for government to partner the private sector instead of constituting itself as a stumbling block to expand internet access.

Ashnah Kalemera of CIPESA and Funke Opeke of MainOne

She said governments in other climes “create the right incentives and structures to facilitate access to the internet especially in the rural areas.”

Data protection conversation also took centre stage on Day 1 as delegates and speakers alike assessed the state of data protection and privacy laws on the continent.

Ephraim Kenyanito of Article 19 and Morisola Alaba of Media Rights Agenda, while speaking on the new 5G technology, said there was an urgent need to have data privacy legislation as technology made its way to the continent, noting that the technical capabilities of 5G could allow for greater surveillance capacities for repressive governments.

#DRIF19 is the seventh edition of the Forum which is convened annually to provide an “important platform where conversations on digital policy in Africa are shaped, and policy directions forged.” The Forum is supported by Google, Ford Foundation, and Heinrich Böll Stiftung.