The East African (Nairobi)
A Correspondent, the Eastafrican
30 May 2006
Nairobi — East African countries are leading the African continent in the growth of Internet connections, with Tanzania recording a 150 per cent rise in users in the past year, a new report says.
In Kenya, this figure is 200 per cent with the number of Internet users having now hit the 1.5 million mark, up from 500,000 users just a year ago. Uganda's are well over 200,000. Tanzania's Internet connections now stand at 300,000.
Across Africa, Internet penetration has now reached 4 per cent, up from just 2.6 per cent in 2005, says the report by Research and Markets, an international investment consultancy firm says. Kenya, together with Nigeria and Morocco, present some of the greatest opportunities for growth in the near future.
The highest Internet penetration on the continent is found in Reunion and the Seychelles, where 20 per cent of the population has access to the worldwide web, followed by Mauritius and Morocco. This compares to penetrations of over 50 per cent in most developed countries.
"While Internet uptake is growing strongly, market penetration is still very low due to the lack of reliable phone lines," the report says. "[Nevertheless], various broadband initiatives have been launched and the number of countries offering commercial ADSL services reached 21 at the end of 2005, after tripling to 15 during 2004."
According to the report, Internet service providers (ISP) subscriber accounts across the continent rose to an estimated 5.5 to 6 million at the beginning of the year, up from just two million last year. Each computer with an Internet or e-mail connection on the continent is on average thought to be used by up to four people.
Given the very low PC [personal computer] penetration rates, most users access Internet services through Internet cybercafes or kiosks, community telecentres, community phone-shops, schools and other types of public Internet access," the report says. "However, the ratio of users per Internet subscription has about halved during 2005, indicating improved affordability of personal Internet access."
Growth in connectivity would rise, the report adds, if some restrictive government controls were removed, and pricing of services made them affordable.
In Egypt, for example, the number of Internet users surpassed those in South Africa in 2004 due to a more liberalised market, rising to five million last year, up from 2.7 million at the end of 2003. The high cost of accessing the Internet in Africa is a serious constraint on economic growth," the report says. "In more than half the countries in Africa, one year of Internet access costs more than the average annual income."
According to the report, wireless access technologies and the continent's mobile networks could help improve connectivity in areas that have a poor or non-existent fixed-line infrastructures.
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