The African Telecom Challenge

Standards of communication technologies vary widely by country. Prosperous tourism destinations such as Mauritius and Madagascar are able to easily cater to visitors’ communications needs. In contrast, some countries in the continent’s interior are unable to communicate effectively between capital cities and remote towns.

State of the Continent

While the Internet has grown at an exponential pace around the world becoming an essential part of many businesses’ operations, Africa’s development has lagged.

Nearly 16 percent of the world’s estimated 6.5 billion people use the Internet, according to Internet World Stats. A comparison with other continents offers striking differences.

Asia has not only the world’s highest population but also the highest amount of Internet users, 56 percent from a total of 3.4 billion people. At the other end of the scale is Africa, which contributes only 2.3 percent of the world’s Internet users.

In addition, while nearly 70 percent of North Americans use the Internet, about 2.66 percent surf the web in Africa.

Development

At a recent high-profile conference aimed at finding ways to accelerate Africa’s global competitiveness, several African heads of state, joined prominent figures such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

The conference concluded with various initiatives for improving health, education, social and business development.