TOWARDS BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN AFRICA: A CALL FOR LEGISLATION ON RIGHTS TO ACCESS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AS FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

One of the rights to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is that everyone must be able tocommunicate and access the modern communications and internet in order to exercise and enjoy one’s rightto freedom of expression and opinion and no one should be denied of such rights by way of location, illiteracy orpoverty. The United Nations specialised agency; the International Telecommunication Union spearheads thisreform globally. This is aimed at ensuring that communication services get to all especially the unserved,underserved areas and underserve groups. The ICT sector has gone through a lot of reforms in Africa andGovernment has made policies and enacted laws in other to bridge the divide. In Nigeria Universal Service Fundis one of government response to digital inclusion through legislation.. However, there still exists unequal accessto ICT in the rural and underserved communities. The aim of this study is to create the awareness for the need tolegislate rights of access to ICT to law and for its interpretation as fundamental human rights. This paperemployed the doctrinal method where primary and secondary sources of law were examined. It is found that rightICT is not part of the fundamental human rights contained in Chapter 4 of the Constitution. The paper amongothers advocates for the legislation of such right into law in other to effectively bridge the access divide.