Browsing: internet

• Market size of Africa’s digital economy could reach $712 billion by 2050.
• In 2022 only 36 percent of the African population had access to broadband internet.
• Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are streamlining adoption of 5G services.

Africa is on the verge of an economic revolution. From the north to the southern part of the Saharan desert, nations are striving to eliminate poverty and gain a strong foothold in global markets.

In the same vein, the continent is banking on the potential held by the digital economy. Reports ping the sector to higher standards, including a report from non-profit Endeavor predicting that the market size of Africa’s digital economy could reach $712 billion by 2050.

The growth is propelled by the massive engagement of the continent’s younger population, rising smartphone adoption and increasing internet penetration.

Read also: World Bank backs Smart Africa’s Digital Academy with $20M grant

Digital economy in

The world largely considers Africa as the next great growth market, a designation that has persisted for years. There are several reasons to be optimistic: the African continent has some of the world’s youngest populations, promises to be a key consuming market over the next three decades, and is becoming more mobile phone-enabled. Because access to smartphones and other devices improves consumer information, networking, job-creating resources, and even financial inclusion, a rising digital ecosystem is especially important as a multiplier of heightened economic growth.…

• Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the fastest increase in worldwide Internet penetration, from less than 1 per cent in 2000 to 30 per cent now. The use of the internet in Africa increased by 23 per cent between 2019 and 2021
• The Internet Society has been at the forefront of supporting the construction and growth of worldwide Internet penetration(IXPs), which permit and stimulate local traffic
• The Internet Society has assisted in the development of community networks in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia, Senegal, Morocco Ethiopia. And the Democratic Republic of the Congo

As the Internet Society (ISOC), a global non-profit organisation that advocates for an open and globally linked Internet, celebrated its 30th anniversary, the organisation demands urgent action to advance Internet growth throughout the African region.

Dawit Bekele, the Africa Regional Vice President of the Internet Society, lauded stakeholders’ progress in expanding access across the continent while encouraging …

The additional Gbps will be part of the highly anticipated global submarine cable. It is aimed at increasing the availability of high-performance and reliable internet connectivity access across the continent leveraging Liquid’s 100,000km of terrestrial fibre across 12 countries. 

While acting as a new global internet route between Asia, Europe and the USA, the additional capacity will help increase the proliferation of faster and more affordable internet, Cloud and cyber security services to the African people and businesses.

“We are delighted to provide new subsea capacity between Mombasa, Karachi and Marseille, with extensions planned towards Singapore and Asia. This creates a cost-effective, low-latency and diverse route that our customers can leverage to serve their business-critical connectivity needs. The submarine cable will be ready in 2022,” Liquid Dataport (a division of Liquid Intelligent Technologies) CEO David Eurin said. …

At the start of the year, state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was photographed inspecting two high-speed trains purchased from the United States of America for the Red Line, which is expected to form the second spoke of the LRMT. The line runs from Marina to Agbado, 30 kilometres from Lagos.

The Blue and Red lines, when complete, are expected to move more than a million people across the expansive metropolis daily, addressing the heavy congestion that has become common within the city.

The light rail project was first contemplated a few decades ago, the initial projections indicating that the Blue Line would be completed in 2011. However, the project was weighed down by a myriad of challenges, including bureaucracy, corruption, mismanagement, and funding.

The light rail project is one of the numerous long-delayed plans to connect Nigeria by rail that has been invigorated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.…

This as 19 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa lived in areas not covered by mobile networks while an additional 53 per cent did not use mobile internet despite having coverage.

The need for accessible internet solutions comes after Meta (formerly Facebook) announced plans to shut down its low-cost Express Wi-Fi internet.

The programme was launched back in 2016 to drive internet connectivity in regions where other forms of connectivity, like ADSL and fibre-optic networks, aren’t readily available or established.…

Africa has for decades failed to provide improved trade mechanisms between African countries which has led to the current situation. The AfCFTA is supposed to remedy this.
And to be in good shape for trade under AfCFTA, countries have to ensure that they are willing to create value chains that will free the continent from the colonial trading system which has been in place for over 60 years and which has left the continent vulnerable.
With the potential benefits that the AfCFTA ha to offer Africa, the biggest trends that will drive growth on the continent include its population, technology and urbanisation among other factors.…

Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa are the only countries on the continent where the share of online shoppers exceeds 8 per cent.…

Africa has some of the most expensive mobile data services in Africa. With the increase in connectivity via smartphones, people in emerging markets can use their portable devices for more things each passing day. Most of us have a smartphone with mobile data that we can carry anywhere and as soon as we step home we switch to our Wi-Fi not to overuse our mobile data; which is most of the time unfairly overcharged.

However some people do not have the privilege to afford both mobile data and internet at home, so they opt for the more expensive but more portable mobile data. Everyday, people in emerging African countries are forced to take this decision and are sometimes charged the most expensive prices in the world for mobile data. What is important to know also is the dependency and impact of smartphones in lower income communities.

With a difficulty in …

If there is a gift that the world has given to Africa, it is the internet and with this, the unlimited ways in which to make life easier.

The internet and by extension the technology that comes with it, has helped in moving the continent towards creating solutions for day to day living instead of waiting for parachuted aid.

From getting farm produce to the marketplace to creating solutions that are ground-breaking in the health sector, the internet has enabled and propelled the hitherto jettisoned continent into spaces even the so-called developed countries wish to occupy.

Power outages in Nigeria major obstacle for tech sector growth

Looking at some of the amazing things that the tech space in Africa has created include the world-renowned M-Pesa which has transformed how people transact not only in Kenya but across the continent and globally in different ways and formats.

And as the world …