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For five days last year, I was privileged to attend the Second (2014) African School on Internet Governance in Mauritius, curtsey of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and Association for Progressive Communications (APC). In that beautiful and well decorated conference room of Bel Ombre, Tammassa Resort, I listened to a very inspiring and thought provoking presentation on the link between a country’s development and investment in internet.
The presenter proved beyond doubt that there is a correlation between a country’s development and investment in internet technologies. In fact, there is a positive correlation between these two. Several examples of countries that have benefited from investing in Internet were given. One of them is South Africa where part of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the internet. I did not find it difficult to believe these assertions having lived in South Africa for two years where I personally witnessed those country’s relentless efforts in valuing and investing in internet technologies and how this investment helped to improve that country’s social economic development. Just as I expected, after giving examples on the countries whose part of GDP comes from Internet like the one I have just mentioned, South Africa, the presenter also gave examples of countries that have not done much in investing in Internet and that, if they would invest more, they were going to benefit more than any other country.
I was not shocked to see that my country, Malawi was one of the four countries in Africa that have done little in investing in internet…
Read more on the African School on Internet Governance website-
