Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

to adopt applications beyond
basic personal communication,
such as voice calls and SMS;
• Mobile broadband promises to
reshape <strong>the</strong> communication
and media landscape. This is
beginning to take hold in many
countries across Africa where
Internet access via mobile
phones is rising exponentially,
and where most access to
specifically broadband is being
provided via <strong>the</strong> airwaves.
These exciting technological advances
are enabling new media to
leap-frog traditional media technologies.
For example, in a survey of
3011 Nigerian adults (aged 15 <strong>years</strong>
and over) in October 2009, InterMedia
found only 1% had a landline
telephone in <strong>the</strong>ir homes, while almost
two-thirds had a working mobile
phone at home.
Mobile phone penetration varies
across <strong>the</strong> continent, but is expanding,
even in rural areas. Many people
who do not personally own a
phone are able to borrow one from
a friend or family member, or use
one at a commercial “kiosk”. Recent
survey data shows that personal
ownership of mobile phones ranges
from around 20% in Ethiopia and
Niger, and between 30% and 40%
in Zimbabwe, Ghana and Tanzania,
through to between 60% and 70%
in Nigeria and Kenya.
While voice calling remains <strong>the</strong> most
popular use of mobile phones, SMS
messaging with friends and family,
receiving SMS information from
mobile operators or o<strong>the</strong>r sources,
and listening to <strong>the</strong> radio are all
becoming popular among mobile
phone uses. For example, more
than a quarter of those surveyed by
InterMedia in Rwanda and Tanzania
said <strong>the</strong>y had used SMS to get
information from friends and family
at some time. In Rwanda, this was
more than <strong>the</strong> number of people
who owned a phone <strong>the</strong>mselves,
likely due to <strong>the</strong> popularity of
borrowing phones or visiting kiosks.
Intermedia has found that among
Kenyan adults who use <strong>the</strong>ir phone
to get news, <strong>the</strong> most popular
method was via SMS from a mobile
phone operator (81%): about a third
said <strong>the</strong>y received SMS from a news
organisation or listened to <strong>the</strong> radio
on <strong>the</strong>ir phones.
“...new technologies
have begun to make a
difference.”
Until relatively recently, Africa has
been excluded from <strong>the</strong> broadband
revolution but with <strong>the</strong> arrival in
2010 of <strong>the</strong> undersea fibre-optic
cables from Europe and India linking
Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana
and Nigeria amongst o<strong>the</strong>rs, this is
changing rapidly. The challenge now
is in developing internal broadband
linkages through a patchwork of
3G, satellite, cable and broadcasthybrids.
Although Internet access still remains
very limited in spread and
speed in most countries, <strong>the</strong> growth
rates in <strong>the</strong> past two <strong>years</strong> have
been spectacular in some countries
— notably those with direct access
to <strong>the</strong> coastal undersea cables, and
with rapidly growing urban and
middle class populations like Nigeria,
Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique.
Regular, daily or weekly, internet
access is now typically available
to an “information elite” in urban
areas, consisting largely of educated
men. Typically, <strong>the</strong>re is a penetration
of below 10% even in <strong>the</strong> most ‘new
media’ advanced countries, but it is
growing.
Meantime, home access is extremely
rare; internet cafés are <strong>the</strong> most
common access venue. And <strong>the</strong>
heaviest users of new technologies—
typically young, educated, affluent
Section 2: Pluralism
urban men — are beginning to use
mobile internet.
In Nigeria, young, well-educated
urbanites make up <strong>the</strong> majority of
internet users. That country’s demographic
and regional variations in
Internet use serve to reflect a pattern
elsewhere across <strong>the</strong> continent.
For example:
• Men are almost three times
more likely than women to say
<strong>the</strong>y have used <strong>the</strong> internet in
<strong>the</strong> past year;
• Almost half of respondents in
Lagos used <strong>the</strong> internet in <strong>the</strong>
last year;
• Only 15% of respondents in <strong>the</strong>
central and eastern states of
sou<strong>the</strong>rn Nigeria said <strong>the</strong>y had
gone online, and
• In <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn regions, fewer
than 10% of respondents had
done so (as few as 2% in <strong>the</strong>
northwestern states).
The new media revolution is taking
a firm grip across <strong>the</strong> continent. For
<strong>the</strong> very first time most citizens now
have affordable access to ‘personal’
media devices which expands <strong>the</strong>ir
choice of media usage and exposure
to a wide range of news and
information sources.
Enormously exciting developments
in technology and applications are
taking place to harness <strong>the</strong> power
of new media. Nairobi is rapidly
becoming <strong>the</strong> Silicon Valley of
Africa with new m-government
initiatives, access to mobile money
and m-health applications — to
mention just a few.
Africans are on <strong>the</strong> cusp of a
media and information explosion
which promises to transform lives
through great increases in access
to finance, information, news and
diverse opinions.
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