Why internet growth on Africa continent is slow – Study

A new study has revealed why the Internet growth on the African continent is slow, in the same way that lack of local content is worsening the decline.

The study led by the Internet Society dubbed “Promoting Content in Africa” which examined Internet access and availability to get people online, was released at the  African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The co-author of the report and Internet Society Fellow, Bastiaan Quast disclosed that they looked critically at infrastructure, mostly in mobile networks, adding that Internet adoption rates are slowing in many countries because users lack compelling reasons to connect.

Quast revealed further that content and services are the main factors in making the Internet desirable, especially when the subject matter is relevant and in a language that users could easily understand.

Quast noted that lack of local content and services are affecting the number of new online users in Africa.

“In Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, local language content is key to bringing new users online, as many are not comfortable reading in English or French,” part of the report read.

The study also outlined the barriers to the development of local content and offers recommendations to improve local content availability and distribution.

In the Sub-Saharan countries, for example, the majority of international and locally developed content are hosted outside the country, typically overseas.

This has resulted in slow Internet speeds and higher access costs, just as in Rwanda for example, of all websites using the .RW domain names, only a small fraction were hosted in Rwanda.

“The majority of sites are hosted in Europe and the U.S.  Hosting content locally is key to making the Internet faster and more affordable for users,” ISOC said in the study.

As mobile financial services are becoming increasingly available in the African continent, monetizing mobile content is still a major challenge.

“Faster and better Internet access can help entrepreneurs create new local content including services and apps, but developers face barriers when it comes to payment mechanisms in order to monetize content,” Quast added.