According to Internet World Statistics, Africa with 15% of the world’s population has 3.4% of the world’s Internet users. Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco and South Africa are the four largest users respectively with a total of 30% of the users from the continent. The main reason for the low per-capita numbers is the lack of infrastructure particularly in rural areas on the continent. This week however, saw a significant leap forward with the launch of SEACOM -17,000 km of fiber optics underwater cable in Dar-es-salaam linking Europe to Africa.

Now that the infrastructure is there, the Governments of East Africa can start working on providing access to people in both urban and rural areas, using the access provided to further enhance the education of the people – on the potential and opportunities available to them, the world, available markets for goods, loans, law, literacy, awareness of rights and health issues and so on..

I hope that this motivates more investment in Infrastructure within the Continent, and that the expected ICT revolution will be exploited by the people in meaningful ways. I hope that we will see Africa being better represented on the Internet, not just in the total number of users, but also in the existence of African produced content – websites, videos, blogs, businesses. Let this be a tool to be used to promote the diverse cultures of Africa, to promote and defend peace and to encourage African Unity. I hope to see content in the many languages of the African people. I want to see their struggles documented by rebellious bloggers who will hopefully shed new light and initiate a dawn of openness within the continent exposing those who would exploit it both from without and within.

The full story is available here
 http://www.latimes.com/business/nationwo…