There is no doubting the fact that Africa is lagging way behind the rest of the world in terms of adoption of new technologies. The United States, Europe and Asia have gone far in this sphere, leaving Africa trailing slowly behind.
According to the latest Internet World Stats, of the about 3.57 billion Internet users in the world as of June 2016, only about 333.5 million of them are in Africa, representing a meagre 9.4 per cent.
You will agree with me that this is absolutely inadequate when you compare the population of Africans to that of the rest of the world as well as the numerous benefits derivable from digitalisation which many Africans do not have access to because of issues of infrastructure.
To enable many more Africans to enjoy these benefits, Africa must step up its game and tow the path of closing the digital divide. It should be noted that most of the advanced societies got to the height they have attained in this sphere today by working hard.
In this piece, therefore, I will be focusing on what Africa should be doing if she must bridge the digital divide and join the rest of the world.
One of the things that African governments should be doing to bridge the digital divide is to make sure that each country solves the issue of epileptic supply of electricity.
It is important to state that without stable and affordable electricity, not much can be achieved in the sphere of bridging the digital divide because the devices required for the population to achieve this require electricity to keep them working.
Without solving the electricity challenge, all other efforts to make progress in bridging the digital divide are not likely to bear adequate fruit as majority of African citizens cannot sustain running their devices on fuel-powered generators or solar powered devices.
Another area where the governments of Africa must look into is to speed up the provision of high speed broadband Internet access to its citizens.
It is pertinent to note that the speed of Internet access currently provided by many service providers in Africa is quite slow with a few exceptions.
It is, however, heart-warming to note that various broadband projects are on-going to improve the speed of Internet access across Africa.
To further engender the bridging of the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world, African governments should make access to tech gadgets and accessories available to the populace. This, they can achieve, by — Finish Reading on the Punch Website
