Africans embrace mobiles and the net

Telecentres are popping up across Africa

The internet and mobile phones are catching on in Africa, according to United Nations experts on the digital divide.

The number of people with internet accounts in Africa jumped by 20% over the past 18 months, said a report by the UN Information and Communication Technologies Task Force.

At the same time, the popularity of wireless communication is soaring. More mobiles were connected in the past five years than landlines installed in the last century.

The UN task force was set up to come up with ideas to promote mobile and internet use in the developing world and help overcome the technology gulf between rich and poor nations.

'Powerful tool'

"Information and communication technologies can help us turn this potential into concrete opportunities that will help the poor work their way out of poverty," said the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his remarks to the task force meeting at UN headquarters in New York.

Mobile phone use is booming

"It is not, of course, a magic formula that is going to solve all the problems," he added.

"But it is a powerful tool for economic growth and poverty eradication, which can facilitate the integration of African countries into the global market."

The secretary general said the group should look at low-cost technologies which could be used to provide cheap and fast internet access.

According to the task force, internet access via corporate or shared networks is growing fast in Africa.

At the same time, more and more cyber cafés and telecentres are appearing in cities and towns.

However, Africa is still lagging behind the developed world.

Only about one in 250 Africans are online, compared to one in two of North Americans and Europeans.