Dr. Jimson Olufuye, Chairman of the Africa Information and Communication Technology Alliance (AfICTA), has urged governments to provide extended tax breaks and other concessions to drive job creation in ICT.

At the 2016 AfICTA summit, held recently in Windhoek, Namibia, Dr. Olufuye advised leaders to provide financing and remove visa restrictions for Africans, especially in ICT, in order to attract further investment and trade.

In an interview with ITWeb Africa Dr. Olufuye said, "You know that most of our governments in Africa are not good at doing business and as business people we know what constitutes a level playing field. That is why we push for stronger government and private sector synergy at the policy development level and at implementation for the most economically beneficial result to be realised."

The AfICTA head believes that African governments have the political will and the capacity to agree to offer the concessions suggested "because they're low hanging fruits with tremendous economic benefits on the short and long terms."

He added: "My desire is for all enterprising Africans to have the requisite opportunity to start and grow their business knowing fully well that hard and smart work has it reward. This simply is the driver of innovation and creativity."

AfICTA, which is a concerned private sector-led alliance of ICT associations, multi-national corporations, companies, organisations and individuals, is planning to push this agenda with individual countries through measures such as the recently concluded Summit.

The Alliance seeks to use dialogue to foster accelerated ICT development in Africa and the application of mobile, computing and satellite technologies to achieve an information society in Africa.