South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria dominated 2011 ICT news share; Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Western Sahara, Comoros did not
Of the 77 news updates posted on this site last year, nearly all (84%) contained a story from South Africa. The majority also included a story from Kenya and Nigeria. Nearly every other post featured tech news from Ghana and Zimbabwe. One in three had a link to a story from Rwanda and Uganda. No surprises here, considering South Africa is an established tech leader and East Africa is known to be the most innovative region on the continent. Nigeria has a large population and an abundance of online media outlets, as do Ghana and Zimbabwe. Most nations, however, lack the online means to share their successes with the world.
We attempt to present information in well-rounded manner with limited bias. Unfortunately, none of our news roundups contained a dedicated story featuring the nations of Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Western Sahara, or the island of Comoros.
To counter the lack of media attention on these areas, we made an effort to research the Internet scene in Centrafrique and spread word of a cyber cafe project for Chad.
We also mentioned how Sonatel’s market share is growing in Guinea-Bissau and how Comoros saw bandwidth increase 1,000% after connecting to a submarine cable in 2010.
How diverse were the African ICT news articles we found in 2011? The following table gives a breakdown of how often a country was tagged in OA News posts.
| Nation | % of OA News Posts w/ Mention |
|---|---|
| South Africa | 84% |
| Kenya | 68% |
| Nigeria | 64% |
| Ghana | 48% |
| Zimbabwe | 44% |
| Rwanda | 36% |
| Uganda | 31% |
| Egypt | 23% |
| Zambia | 23% |
| Cameroon | 21% |
| Ethiopia | 16% |
| Malawi | 13% |
| Namibia | 13% |
| Sierra Leone | 13% |
| Tanzania | 13% |
| Tunisia | 13% |
| Morocco | 12% |
| Sudan | 12% |
| Angola | 10% |
| Botswana | 10% |
| Liberia | 10% |
| Senegal | 10% |
| Algeria | 9% |
| Cote D’Ivoire | 9% |
| Libya | 9% |
| Mozambique | 9% |
| Swaziland | 9% |
| Burundi | 8% |
| Gambia | 8% |
| Somalia | 8% |
| Mali | 6% |
| Mauritius | 6% |
| Cape Verde | 5% |
| Congo | 5% |
| Dem. Rep. of Congo | 5% |
| Seychelles | 5% |
| Togo | 5% |
| Benin | 3% |
| Burkina Faso | 3% |
| Djibouti | 3% |
| Equatorial Guinea | 3% |
| Eritrea | 3% |
| Gabon | 3% |
| Lesotho | 3% |
| Niger | 3% |
| Guinea | 1% |
| Madagascar | 1% |
| Mauritania | 1% |
| Mayotte | 1% |
| Reunion | 1% |
| Sao Tome And Principe | 1% |
| Central African Republic | 0% |
| Chad | 0% |
| Comoros | 0% |
| Guinea-Bissau | 0% |
| Western Sahara | 0% |
Also worth noting is that 2011 marked the first time visitors came to oAfrica.com from Central African Republic, Gabon, and Somalia. However, no visitors from Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Chad, Comoros, or Mayotte made their way to the site. Hopefully such trends will change in 2012 as Internet access increases in these nations and as this site’s content ranks higher on search engines.
Visitors to oAfrica.com, by African country, 2011. {Google Analytics}
