Africa's Internet usage illustrates clearly the yawning technology gap that separates the continent from the rest of the globe. Athough Africa accounts for 13% of the global population, it possesses only 1.7%10 of the world's Internet users.

Africa's Internet lag is inextricably tied to its telecommunications development. Only 2.4% of the fixed-lines in the world are located in Africa, about three telephone lines per 100 people. Contrast this to a first world country such as the US, which boasts 64 lines per 100 people, and the limitations become apparent.

Africa has always been a late starter. From almost no Internet users in 1994, usage mushroomed to 2.5m users in 1998, doubled to 5m users by 2000 and surpassed the 6m user mark during 2001.
A report released by independent consultant Mike Jensen in early 2002, estimated that of the 770 million people in Africa, only one person in 150 had web access. This is still dismally below the world average of one user for every 15 people and light years away from the North American and European average of one user for every two people. Jensen also concluded that each computer with an Internet or email connection typically supports between three to five users.

As with most technology-related demographics, South Africa leads the charge. In May 1999, South Africa boasted 1.8m users, which grew to 2.4m in 2000. In June 2002, SA's Internet population was estimated at 2.89m users, one user for every 15 people. Contrast this to the US, Canada, Singapore, Sth Korea and Hong Kong, where one in two users had web access. The slow growth of web access in SA worries Internet analyst Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx.

"This marked the first time since the Internet was introduced into South Africa that users failed to grow by at least 10%," Goldstuck notes. Rather than a sign of market saturation, he attributed this to delays in licensing the country's second national operator and a lack of willingness by SA's fixedline operator, Telkom, to accommodate Internet Service Providers.

While the minimal increases might worry Goldstuck, SA is still streets ahead of the rest of the continent. All 54 nations are technically wired to the web, following Eritrea's connection in December 2000. For some countries, however, this is a hollow claim.

Eritrea, Somalia virtually unwebbed.
Somalia, with the most epileptic of wartorn telephone networks, claimed a paltry 500 users throughout the country in 2000. Eritrea "boasts" 5,000 users, about as many users as a small town in Europe, but still an exponential increase on the 900 users it possessed in 1999.

Neighbouring Ethiopia, up until recently locked in combat with Eritrea, claims only 10,000 web users. The southern African nation of Mozambique had only 15,000 users in 2000.

As one would expect, nipping at South Africa's heels are a host of countries from the wired northern regions. Egypt is the second most populous Internet nation on the continent, with an estimated 560,000 users in 2001, although this is still a dismal penetration rate of only 0.81%. Tunisia is also on track to web-prosperity with 280,000 users (penetration of 2.89%) while Morocco was last estimated as having 220,000 users. Cape Verde might only have 8,000 Internet users, but this represents a comparatively high 2% of the population.

Egypt is not likely to seriously threaten South Africa's title soon. According to a report by the Arab Advisors Group released in June, Egypt's Internet population is only set to reach the 2.6m user mark by 2006. During that time, the number of Internet accounts in the country will rise from 120,000 to 680,000 by 2006.

Africa's shining examples
Morocco, like the east African nation of Tanzania, is a shining example of how liberalisation of the telecoms industry can boost Internet connectivity. Both of the nations boasted dismal connectivity figures until they opened up their market to multiple entrants. Morocco's 220,000 users might not seem something to brag about, but one year previously there were only 50,000 users in the country. Tanzania's Internet user population also underwent a 400% increase, vaulting from 25,000 users in 1999 to 115,000 barely a year later.

In West Africa, Nigeria still has the most users with more than 200,000 people estimated to be online by 2000, a lamentable penetration rate of 0.16%. Despite the fact that the Nigeria Internet market is well below its potential - in a country with 120m people - the growth of the medium is curtailed by the limited access to phone lines.

There are only about 500,000 operational phone lines in the country and as plans to privatise Nitel recently fell through, the roll-out of new lines is far from certain. Other West African countries trail by some distance; Ghana had barely 30,000 web users by 2000 while the Ivory Coast's web users doubled during 1999 to amount to 40,000 in 2000.

So there is undoubtedly growth in Africa's Internet use, but what are the remaining obstacles? Jensen believes it's primarily an issue of power. "Irregular or non-- existent electricity supplies are a major barrier to use of the Internet, especially outside the major towns and cities," he says.
As Jensen points out, this contributes to the fact that the Internet is largely confined to the major African cities, which houses only a minority of the 770m strong population.

Another fact is the limitation of Africa's telephone networks. Internet use is necessarily tied to the growth of fixed-line telephone lines. While the number of fixed-lines is growing at a rapid 25% a year, this is only in certain liberalised economies and in specific areas. A far more comprehensive pan-African e-plan is needed to affect a continent wide change.

Another issue is costs. According to Jensen's report, the average total cost of using a local dial-up Internet account for 20 hours a month is around $68 per month. For citizens in many poorer African nations, this is a hefty expense that is still typically seen as a luxury indulgence.

The costs of Internet access needs to be brought down - and one way in which this might happen is through the SAT3/Wasc/Safe undersea fibre-optic cable that was recently launched in Senegal. The fibre-optic cable is meant to reduce Africa's telecommunications costs by over $300m a year.
At the moment about 80% of Africa's telecommunications revenue flows out of the country as inter-African calls from one African nation were previously routed via Europe or the US, before being bounced back to the continent at a huge cost. This cable, lying between 1000m and 8000m below the surface of the ocean, will allow traffic to stay `in-house' and facilitate lower call charges.
Multi-nationals must roll up sleeves

But efforts to e-enable Africa need to come from all quarters. Microsoft corporate vice-president Umberto Paolucci, speaking at the April conference in Dakar on the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), said that firms and non-governmental organisations should partner with governments to provide web-enabled computers.

Speaking at the same conference, Cisco Systems representative Thorsten Freitag pointed out that Nigeria's universities only had place for 60,000, in a country where 600,000 people finish school each year. With online education, he argued, there is no upper limit to how many people can be educated.
South Africa seems to have the right idea. The 'Gautengonline' project aims to provide Internet access to every child in the 2,400 schools in the resource-rich Gauteng province.

It is an ambitious project made possible by a combination of funding from government and cash-flush corporations.