Iain MacAulay
Although it should be noted that the continent is starting from what they call an extremely 'low base' the statistics do speak for themselves with the number of dial-up Internet subscribers rising 20 percent over the past 18 months, and the activation of mobile phones also rising with the comparison being given that more cell phones have been turned on over the past five years than the number of landline connections installed over the last century.
With internet access growing even faster than dial-up usage, and expanding, they say, at a rate just slightly below the world average. it has prompted Cyber cafes and other public access centres to appear in urban areas all across the continent. And although the western average is about one out of every two people in North America and Europe using the Internet, it is a long way ahead of the figure that in Africa states about one in 250 are surfers when, you exclude more highly developed South Africa and northern Africa from the figures.
Yet the door is open and the opportunities seem to be right for the continent to become a major consumer off all things internet related and bridge the gap to the so called developed western world.
The report was issued at the opening of the third meeting of the appointed task force at U.N. headquarters, detailed 'in search of strategies for promoting wireless telephone and Internet usage in the developing world'. Kofi Annan its secretary general stated that 'Information and communication technologies are "a chance for Africa," It is not, of course, a magic formula that is going to solve all the problems. But it is a powerful tool for economic growth and poverty eradication, which can facilitate the integration of African countries into the global economy." And about time to.
