Zambia signs up for NEPAD

Zambia has become the twelfth country to sign up to the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network Protocol since it was inaugurated in August this year. The signing paves the way for implementation of a new network covering 23 countries in eastern and southern Africa which will include, amongst other things, the building of a 9,900km submarine cable called EASSy (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System) from Mtunzini, South Africa to Port Sudan. Other countries to have signed up to the USD300 million project — scheduled to be operational in 2008 — are Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the Democratic Republic of Congo.