Thu, 11 Dec 2003 14:44:13 GMT

Africa's dicey situation.

Africa fears being left behind as the world rushes into a high tech future. The Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said bluntly at WSIS yesterday, “We are still struggling to provide the basic necessities of life… While faced with these challenges, we are also confronted with the digital revolution. We are, therefore, placed in a dicey situation.” “Almost everyone in the developed countries has access to ICTs, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, overall fixed line teledensity is about 1 to 130 inhabitants while internet, computers and television are available to only a handful of elites,” he added. Earlier, Senegalese president Abdulaye Wade had raised hopes of the emergence of a new concept of digital solidarity. But the Nigerian president seemed more downbeat, his baritone voice conveying the sad message that there appears to be a lack of political will to tackle a widening digital divide. He called, again, for a Digital Solidarity Fund, as “a practical measure for redressing the digital imbalance.”
[via Daily Summit]

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]