Full coverage: Africa

30.08.2005 Nigerian techies are developing the Solo, a computer that can withstand the dust, heat, and unreliable power supply common in their part of the world, and hoping the tropicalised PCs can connect greatly underserved Nigerians in rural areas with the rest of the country and the world.

30.08.2005 Five years ago the idea of digital television in Africa would have seemed absurd. Now two countries have announced their intention to offer digital television. Senegal seems to have been first into the game, launching a pilot at the end of last year with 200 trial subscribers.

30.08.2005 The biggest thetha SANGONeT information communication technology (ICT) discussion forum with Civil Society Organisations of South Africa have started in Cape Town with an opportunity for the general public to learn about the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

29.08.2005 A study conducted by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) with support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, demonstrates that that one of the reasons why information and communication technology (ICT) projects in schools do not succeed is that principals are often not properly informed about what ICTs can or cannot do.

29.08.2005 The Seychelles President, Mr James Alix Michel, made an announcement at a recent public consultative meeting for an overall development.

29.08.2005 The first phase of Electronic Schools' (e-Schools) program of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) initiated in sixteen African countries.

26.08.2005 Africa has become the world’s fastest-growing cellphone market. From 1999 through 2004, the number of mobile subscribers in Africa jumped to 76.8 million, from 7.5 million, an average annual increase of 58 per cent.

26.08.2005 Information and Communications Technology (ICT), must go into the rural areas so as to close the gap between city and rural dwellers especially women, according to ICT advisor to the African Development Consultant, Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma.

26.08.2005 On 22 August 2005, a dual ceremony was held at Rimbaud’s House in the historic Ethiopian city of Harar to mark the inauguration of a UNESCO sponsored community telecentre and to present certificates to the first batch of graduates from the telecentre’s basic ICT course.

25.08.2005 This essay is meant to contribute to understanding how people in developing countries use technology, what they want from it, how they can and do form communities based on absorbing and mastering new technologies imported from rich countries, and how they might design their own technologies in ways that are potentially more suitable to the conditions in poor countries and thus more likely to raise living standards in these countries. In a world where two billion people live on two dollars a day, raising living standards remains an urgent task.

25.08.2005 The biggest SANGONeT information communication technology (ICT) discussion forum with Civil Society Organisations of South Africa have started in Cape Town with an opportunity for the general public to learn about the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

25.08.2005 THE Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) has produced a series of electronic lessons that will help students studying physical science.

23.08.2005 MTN Village Phone, launched in November 2003, extends telecommunication access to rural areas across Uganda in partnership with micro finance institutions (MFIs) by creating opportunities for individuals in impoverished areas to become village phone operators.

22.08.2005 Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has launched a new and more efficient billing system branded e-Bill, which will allow customers to access information on their account electronically.

18.08.2005 Premier Ebrahim Rasool said that the South African government should harness information and communications technology (ICT) and place it at the disposal of all the people.

17.08.2005 Millions living in marginal, difficult areas of Africa’s Sahel depend upon millet and sorghum as their staple diet and as feed and fodder for their livestock.

16.08.2005 Makerere University, Uganda is to start its first ever e-learning programme in an effort to promote information and communication technology (ICT) among the students and reduce congestion in the lecture rooms of the university.

12.08.2005 All land records of Kenya will be computerised soon.To begin with, information from three million land rent payment cards will be captured in a computer by December2005.

12.08.2005 Within eight weeks of the announcement made by NEPAD about its e-School Demonstration Project,African children have started getting direct access to the rich repository of information, through the acquisition of ICT skills.

11.08.2005 OneWorld Africa (OWA) is working with Chipata District Women’s Development Association (DWDA) on a Chipata Women’s Mobile Communication Project, which aims to improve the communication of developmental information from the district to the area associations and to further connect the district office to several information sources.