The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has set a target of raising $100 billion from the public and private sectors by 2026, for investments in connectivity projects in the world’s least-developed countries.
A statement issued by the UN organisation on the projects charged all stakeholders in the global telecommunications space, particularly the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, on the need to increase in pledges made towards the execution of the project. Already, the project has secured $30 billion for various projects and earmarked $12 billion of this to specific areas.
The ITU estimates that 2.7 billion people globally were not connected to telecommunications services in 2022, with almost a third of them located in the 46 countries it classifies as “least developed” and that across the affected nations the Internet was considered affordable in just two of them.
It listed some of the factors responsible for this large scale non-connection of people to the Internet in the least developed countries as including lack of access telecommunications (internet), poor digital skills and non-affordability of the services.
Speaking on the role of technology in global development, the ITU Secretary-General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, said: “Technology is at the top of the global agenda, but the benefits of digital technology are still out of reach for too many people.
“If we are serious about digitalising the world in a way that is meaningful and sustainable, we must take action to accelerate digital transformation for everyone”, he advocated.
Also commenting on the digitalization agenda, the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, expatiated: “As the internet becomes ever more central to value creation and innovation, least developed countries risk falling further behind. We must dramatically improve accessibility and inclusivity and eliminate the digital divide.”
