Africa Internet Use the Lowest – UN

Africa is the continent with high rate of a number of diseases but with lowest as far as using the internet, a valuable source of information in today’s world, is concerned, a new UN report indicated on Friday.
According to the report, Africa shares only 1.2 % of the global Internet users, making the continent lowest in the world in the 21 century.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) report issued at the ongoing ICT forum in here stated that Africa was far from using the available ICT, which is growing faster than the previous years.

According to the report, Africa, home to over 800 million people, is also the lowest user of fixed telephone lines in the world.

“Of the estimated 350 users of Internet and one billion users of fixed telephone lines in the world, Africa has the lowest share (1.2%) and the second lowest (2%), respectively,” the report said.

It said Africa had better move fast in exploiting the ICT resources to avoid losing ground from the fast growing world of information.

“The use of ICTs is spreading faster than any technology in the history of humanity and Africa cannot afford to miss participating in this revolution,” UN said.

The report issued under the theme “Africa Media and ICT 4 D” also indicated that more than 850 million people in the developing world where the majority are in Africa are excluded from the information society.

“By the year 2020, it has been predicted that 12 billion devices will be connected to the global information infrastructure, including such ubiquitous items as light bulbs, heart pacemakers and fridges,” the report said.

Daily Monitor