NTIC expanding rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa

15 September 2009

The General Secretary of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadoun Toure, made a statement this weekend about the scale of the progress achieved over the past few years in the field of new technologies in Africa.

“A mere ten years ago, hardly anyone in Africa had a mobile phone; today (...) there are close on 250 million subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa”, he said at a press conference in Abuka, Nigeria, at the close of the 2009 telecommunications development summit conference.

This success is largely due to the massive investments made in the NTIC sector, with eight billion Dollars allocated in 2008 alone, according to Mr. Toure.

The Internet has also made great strides, with 30 million Internet users in Africa. Toure did point out, however, that only 635,000 subscribe to ADSL.

In closing, Mr. Toure revealed UIT’s plans for the future, which include leading a campaign for harmonisation of NTIC policies in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to regulate the market better and facilitate the development of NTIC.<br/>

Category: ICT