Education and Skills
How connectivity credits could help bridge the digital divide
Nearly half the world's population has no internet access. A connectivity credit initiative would incentivise providers to connect less profitable areas.
Andile Ngcaba
Andile Ngcaba is the founder and Chairman of
Convergence Partners Investments and the
Executive Chairman of Dimension Data Middle
East & Africa (DDMEA). He is also an Internet
technology investor and entrepreneur. Andile holds a Master of Commerce, majoring in
Information Systems, qualification from the
University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. The
University of Fort Hare honoured him with an
honorary Doctorate in Commerce and Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University appointed him
as an Adjunct Professor of the University,
affiliated to the faculty of science. Andile has actively been involved in public policy
development at National, Continental and Global
levels through his activities on various bodies
including the ITU, ICANN and the African
Union. In his international organisational
activities, Andile served on the Board and Highlevel
Panel (serving as the business sector chair)
responsible for the outcomes of the Netmundia l
multi-stakeholder conference on Internet
governance, hosted by the Brazilian government
in April 2014. He continues to serve in an advisory capacity to a
number of national, regional and international
policymaking bodies in the technology and
science sectors. He also serves on the council of
The National Advisory Council on Innovation
(NACI). Andile’s latest venture is the establishment of The
Cortex Hub in East London, South Africa which
will be competing globally in producing IT
entrepreneurs who are able to develop local and
global solutions.
Andile serves on the boards of a number of
companies, these include: • Dimension Data Middle East and Africa and
subsidiaries
• Convergence Partners and several of its
investment companies. Both Dimension Data and
Convergence Partners are involved in internet
related investments in Africa.
• Seacom, the first fiber-optic submarine cable to
serve the East Coast of Africa. The focus is on
increasing Africa’s access to affordable,
accessible broadband services; and
• Convergence Partners was in a joint venture
with Intelsat in building an African satellite “New
Dawn Satellite Company”, Africa’s first private
communication satellite service focused on ensuring and supporting Africa’s continued
growth of broadband services with a purely
African footprint and sold at a later stage.
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