In an earlier post, I commented on “Cloud Computing” and its expected changes to the way we …. errr ….. compute? As I began to try to imagine what the future of computing would be like, especially in Africa- specifically West Africa- one troubling issue that comes to mind is the low rate of Internet usage within the sub region.

As I pondered further, I was quickly reminded of an article I had written for Darrel Technologies, on web trends in Ghana, where I had placed the estimated number of Internet users (users here refering to people with “steady” internet access at the time) in the country at about 609,800 in Sept. 2007. I also went on on to talk about the increase in actual web surfers.

The reality of the whole issue quickly dawned on me- the number of “Internet Users” in Ghana is actually less than 5% of the country’s 22 million plus population.

According to the Ghana News Agency- Mr. Eric Akumiah, General Secretary, Internet Society, Ghana places Internet usage in the country at a mere 2.7%. Mr Akumiah seemed to blame the issue on “some policies (Government no doubt)”, and called on government to recognize the importance of a multi-stakeholder model of decision making especially on Internet Policy Development.

He went on further to say;

“To achieve an increased usage there was the need to ensure that human capacities in that area were preserved, including the ability to connect, innovate, communicate and share information.”

“We also encourage the government to create maximum benefit through networking to draw on the insight and expertise of all stakeholders, especially those from the internet technical community, to conceive and implement an internet-friendly policy framework”

With all due respect to Mr Akumiah, I totally disagree.

It’s all well and good to talk about the issues raised, but as good as Government policies and the likes may sound, i think there are more pertinent issues as to the spate of low Internet Usage in Ghana, and this i believe, cuts across the entire West African sub region.

Just so I have something else to blog about later, I will mention only one, and the most relevant of all in my opinion- Affordablility

Simply put, Internet Access is still too expensive in Ghana and West Africa as a whole. Most people would rather use the Internet cafe’s than subscribe to any of the ISP’s, solely becuase of the cost of Internet access.

Ghana Telecom’s Broadband 4U service which is amongst the cheapest in the country costs within the range of $45 – $280 per month for speeds of between 128Kbps to 1Mbps. Technically speaking, this really isn’t Broadband, but DSL => which costs at most $12.99 per month, in the US, with speeds of up to 1.2Mbps.

Actual Broadband in some countries costs no more than $45 per month, and
provides the user with speeds of up to 10Mbps.

You may want to Read This- if you haven’t already done so- to fully understand the following;

With the next generation of Operating Systems based on Cloud Computing, and in light of all the issues mentioned above, I can’t help but ask the question- Is Africa really ready to “Take To The Clouds“?