The title of this blog is not totally mine (how much of anything in my life is really mine?) I'm basically reacting to this interesting World Bank report, which sums up my brimming enthusiasm on one hand, but also curbs my rapidly inflating optimism on some accounts.
 
Good news is:
"Sub-Saharan Africa—long tagged a high-cost, high-risk place to do business—is becoming a more hospitable destination for investors... Africa attracted about $12 billion of foreign direct investment in 2004, about 3 percent of the global total, with investment flows rising in 40 of the 53 countries in the region. Portfolio investments are at about $3 billion and rising... "
 
Nice going! But then this part here is really no news:
"Much of the inward investment is directed to South Africa or to the extractive industry sectors, but not all..."
 
South Africa alone already accounts for a bigger fraction of the entire sub-Saharan economic output. South Africa’s economy pretty much turns on the extractive industries – so the second half of the statement is merely a repetition. It would have been really something if they said how much investment funds were directly invested in ICT sectors or how much of these investment transactions are ICT- enabled or catalyzed.
 
As far as attracting investment:
"Kenya has brought down the number of required business licenses from 1,347 to 195, substantially reducing the cost of starting up a business.
 
Madagascar has brought down the time required to register a firm from 38 days to 8.
 
Mozambique has adopted a new investment code and cut the transfer tax for property from 10 percent to 2.4 percent.

Burkina Faso has created a one-stop shopping concept for new businesses that cuts by nearly a third the time required to start a new company. Company registration costs have dropped 60 percent.

Mali, meanwhile, has eliminated registration fees altogether..."
 
From an ICT standpoint, this list leaves out some major e-government initiatives going on in the sub region, for instance:
Nigeria, which ranks last in property registration under the overall doing business assessment, has since embarked on a series of electronic lands and property registration initiatives.
Botswana goes even further in their e-government initiative – making available a substantial volume of government records, forms, procedures, edicts, decrees, etc., available online to the public.

These e-government initiatives generally increase efficiency of the systemic process, while creating a (direly needed) modicum of transparency in SSA government transactions.