About us at ICT Policy Africa - Analysis, research and training in ICT policy and regulation

Dr Charley Lewis

Independent Analysis, Research & Training in the field of ICT policy & regulation

Currently an independent analyst and researcher, with extensive expertise covering the broad spectrum of ICT policy and regulation, Dr Lewis’s career includes roles as an academic and researcher, trade union IT manager and policy representative, information systems analyst and developer, and high school teacher.

Dr Lewis’ skills and expertise cover a wide range of competencies across the broad range ICT sector expertise, from telecommunications and broadcasting to broadband and the Internet, including:

Universal access and service, and the digital divide;
ICT policy analysis, formulation and evaluation;
ICT sector policy, law, regulation and ICT sector market trends;
Consumer protection and quality of service;
Spectrum management;
Statistics and indicators;
The 4th industrial revolution, the information society and the knowledge economy.

Dr Lewis’s particular forte is the field of universal access and service. His PhD focused on the adaptation of global universal access and service policy into national intervention practice in South Africa, and received the ‘Doctoral Award 2018’ from the SA Association of Political Studies in “recognition of excellence in written work at the doctoral level”. He has a book on the same broad area, entitled Regulating Telecommunications in South Africa: Universal Access and Service, due out from Palgrave Press later in 2020.

The projects he has completed cover a range of areas, including: developing and drafting of policies, research in a number of areas, including universal access and service, consumer protection, quality of service, the 4th Industrial Revolution, digital skills development, the Internet, spectrum and business process outsourcing.

Dr Lewis has written and published papers, articles in refereed journals, as well as several book chapters, and a forthcoming book. He is well-known as an ICT expert with extensive experience and exposure, not only in South Africa, but across the continent. He has experience in interacting at many levels, from the shopfloor to executive level, from lay person to minister, across many stakeholder sectors, including private companies, the public sector and NGOs.

Dr Lewis has extensive teaching and lecturing experience. As a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand he managed and taught both professional development and academic courses to ICT regulators, policy-makers and industry practitioners. He has also conducted training sessions, lectures and seminars in a wide range of mainly African countries: Burkina Faso, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sweden, Tanzania, Uganda.

Dr Lewis was recently appointed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies to serve on the Ministerial Task Team on Post Covid-19 Economic Response Strategy. He also served on South Africa’s national ICT Policy Review Panel from 2012 to 2015, and holds memberships for: SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition; the SA Communications Forum; Internet Society SA.

Key Experience

Some recent assignments & projects include:

Research Triangle Institute (USA)

Economic impact of undersea cables (South Africa & India - forthcoming)

Dark Fibre Africa

Spectrum and WOAN licensing: process & feasibility (client presentation)

Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services

National Digital Skills Strategy for South Africa (forthcoming)
Annual Performance Plan facilitation (2017 & 2018)
Spectrum auctions benchmarking research (client report)

Research ICT Africa

Artificial Intelligence (6 reports - peer review & editing)
Sector Performance Review: Kenya
Policy submission: ECA Amendment Bill
Peer review & editing: 4IR in South Africa, ICT in Nigeria, Cloud computing (5 African countries)