Africa Pulse

Highway Africa Information Summit Upbeat About Future 

 

Africa's information technology promoters from private industry, the media and academia are finding evidence that the continent is overcoming price and infrastructure problems to exploit the Internet as a tool for poverty alleviation, democratisation and development.  

"Investment in computers with Internet access is expensive, but it is essential. With information comes opportunities," Nigerian communications consultant Mkpe Abang told delegates at the seventh annual Highway Africa information summit at Rhodes University, which ended September 10.  

For every story of progress in the spread of computer usage and Internet communication in Africa, promoters of ICT related obstacles that still deny Africans the use of technology taken for granted in the developed world. 

"There are technical problems, like the lack of telephone lines. There are financial hurdles that prevent the poor from participating in the information age, so they are denied the directions needed to find their way out of poverty. But there are also social and governmental matters that stand in the way," said Amanda Singleton, Group Executive with the South African phone company Telkom.  

There was also a need for gender empowerment, so that information gained by women about family planning, business or community development initiatives would not go to waste because they were kept at home and denied the power to put their knowledge into action. 

 
(Africa Pulse)