Financial Gazette (Harare)
Givemore Nyanhi
21 November 2003
Harare — ZIMBABWE'S young Internet café industry continues to grow even under tight economic conditions as more people turn to the Internet, the cheapest means of communication.
"Most of our patrons are teachers, nurses and people looking for greener pastures abroad as the cost of living becomes too expensive in the country," said a worker for a leading Internet café in the city centre. In Harare alone, the numbers of Internet service cafés has shot up incredibly over the past two years.
Internet provides the easiest and cheapest way of communicating between Zimbabweans in the country and their relatives who have fled Zimbabwe's worsening political and economic morass as the telephone and postal charges become unaffordable.
Harare boasts of over 20 thriving Internet cafés, and others hidden in the backrooms of most buildings, that are making brisk business everyday with the prospect of more cafés opening soon.
Some of the major cyber cafés in the city centre include Quick n' Easy, InTouch, DC Africa, Telco and the state operated ComOne.
"It is easy to tell that the rise in Internet use has a lot to do with the mass exodus of locals leaving for greener pastures. The easiest way of keeping in touch is through the Internet and it will remain like this for so long as the unstable economic and political situation degenerates," said one Quick n' Easy worker.
Last year, Zimbabwe was recorded among the top 11 countries with substantial Internet usage with more than 35 000 dial-up Internet subscribers who have accounts with the country's more than five internet service providers (ISPs). Some of these Internet service providers are Africaonline, Ecoweb, Telconet, Zimbabwe Online, Zimweb and ComOne.
The charge for sending or receiving an electronic message swings between $10 and $30 a minute and all cafés allow subscribers to spend a minimum of 10 minutes while an international call costs around $500 per minute.
Some cafés have come up with customer friendly packages that allow subscribers to become members if they pay for more than 10 hours in advance and then enjoy special discount rates and more surfing time.
Quick n' Easy Internet café with three cafes in and around the city centre is tightlipped about its operations but it is reliably understood that the hugely successful company is owned by a consortium of businessmen with connections in South Africa.
However, experts in the field revealed that although cafés were enjoying brisk business, the country was unlikely to go on experiencing new entrants since the current economic regime was becoming highly restrictive as the costs of computers skyrocket.
A new computer now costs around $4 million and the prices fluctuate on a daily basis.
Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZISPA) chairman Shadreck Nkala said in terms of public access to the Internet, Zimbabwe was far ahead of South Africa.
" Zimbabwe only lags behind South Africa because their telecommunications network is bigger than ours, hence more companies subscribe to the Internet while in Zimbabwe the figure is less," Nkala said.
He said, however, on the public sphere, there was more public Internet use relying on the small number of Internet service providers. "There has been a very dramatic upsurge in the number of public Internet users and the trend is likely to keep on rising," he said.
There are over four million Internet users in Africa, with the bulk of them, over 60 percent, found in Zimbabwe and South Africa alone while North Africa accounts for more than 250 000, and the reminder in the other 50 countries on the continent.
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