A report on the Internet Development and Governance in Africa, released by the Internet Society, a global organization dedicated to transparent and open internet, has revealed that despite the a rapid internet growth in Africa, there is a need to amp up interconnectivity in Africa.
According to the report, despite the introduction of internet into Africa in 1991 and a continent-wide reach just over 20%, “indicators reveal disparity in internet development from country to country, for instance, Morocco has an internet penetration rate over 50%, while other countries have penetration rates below 2%” .
“As Africa’s user base grows, the need to coordinate and manage the growth and development of the Internet becomes increasingly important,” said Dawit Bekele, Internet Society Regional Bureau Director for Africa. “If Africa has to make the progression towards a digital economy to reap the full benefits of the Internet, it needs to transition from basic connectivity to interconnectivity of networks.
The report says establishment of Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) at the local level in Africa, adoption of digital broadcasting, IPv6 and Internet governance will further drive internet penetration in Africa. The report was released in June 2, 2015, in Tunis, Tunisia. The full report is available here.
Recently, a similar report was released by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4Ai) that placed Nigeria second (among emerging economies) on the internet affordability index.
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