Why connecting Africa is so important for all of us

Among the key concerns of connecting Africa discussed during the EURO AFrican Hub project launched by OISTE and theh City of Malaga are that Internet services needed for creating business, improving government and developing consumer applications continue to be either very expensive or not available due to limited broadband network infrastructure in Africa; and that rural connectivity and access remain inadequate as does the availability of locally relevant content, applications and services.

A person in a high-income country is over 22 times more likely to be an Internet user than someone in a low-income country. And in high-income countries, mobile phones are 29 times more prevalent, and mainline penetration is 21 times that of low-income countries (UNCTAD 2006). The few Internet users in Africa pay exorbitant charges for a service that tends to be slower than elsewhere in the world owing to low bandwidth problems. The penetration of broadband stands at just about 2% of total Internet usage, and the continent boasts 0.1% of the world’s broadband connections, compared to its share of the global mobile connections of 4%. This in turn makes the Internet less useful for those Africans that have access to it than it is for their counterparts in America, Asia, and Europe.

Consequently, it becomes especially difficult for the majority of Africans with access to the Internet to engage in any meaningful trade and business using the Internet, implying for instance that they can hardly take advantage of the numerous Business Process Outsourcing Opportunities from which other countries such as India, Thailand and the Philippines are reaping huge benefits. Some argue that with the current Internet costs and usage levels in Africa, and the low penetration of broadband connectivity, it remains a big challenge to meaningfully employ the Internet to promote trade and agriculture, or education and health services delivery, in Africa.

In 2006, the mobile phone became the first communications technology to have more users in developing countries than in developed ones, with more than 800 million mobile phones sold in developing countries in the preceding three years. African countries have been a key contributor to this achievement, as they have registered the world’s highest mobile phone growth, ranging from 50% to 400% in the last three years. But as ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré has pointed out, Africa’s goal should be to replicate the success of the mobile phone in broadband capability, with the aim of achieving “Internet access in every village, every school, every university, every hospital.”