Investments totaling $55 billion were announced on Tuesday at the Connect Africa Summit here to expand ICT connectivity and services to the entire continent by 2015, including a goal of interconnecting cities to broadband by 2012. Highlighting the catalytic role of ICTs in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015, ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré, said “seven years before the 2015 target for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, we need to be bold. We need to devise the strategies that will enable us to achieve these goals. Information and communication technologies have a crucial role to play in achieving these goals, for example, through e-education e-agriculture and e-health.” He added that African countries need modern, reliable broadband infrastructure in order to create jobs for economic growth. __
