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May 26, 2001

CNNfn: Market Coverage - Morning

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNNfn ANCHOR, MARKET CALL: While Americans may take the Internet for granted, people in other parts of the world hardly know it exists. The continent of Africa is one such example. Although Africa is home to nearly 10 percent of the world`s population, less than one percent have access to the net. But our "Maverick of the Morning" is trying to change that. Rebecca Enonchong is founder of the Africa Technology Forum , and joins us in our "Maverick of the Morning" segment. Thanks so much for joining us, Rebecca.

REBECCA ENONCHONG , AFRICA TECHNOLOGY FORUM: Thank you.

SCHAFFLER: Sort of just frame the situation for us a little bit better.

Why is technology not yet across the board in Africa like we`re seeing in other countries. What`s the main hold up there?

ENONCHONG: Infrastructure, for one, I think their are many different hurdles. But the first one being infrastructure. The facilities aren`t there for the Internet, not as we speak. This is changing slowly, and we`re trying to find ways for it to progress a little bit faster. But for now, it`s the infrastructure just isn`t there.

SCHAFFLER: OK, give us some ideas of what you`re doing to try to improve things?

ENONCHONG: Well, the Africa Technology Forum was created by basically six technology companies that are owned by Africans. And the purpose of the organization is actually to bridge the digital divide. And we`ve actually set out on several different initiatives. The first one being to start an information campaign throughout the continent, to let people know and let Africans know that technology is a way out. The second initiative is actually to increase the number of technology professionals. So we do this through training programs using radio, using mass media, to try to reach the largest amount of the population. The third initiative is to really work with different governments to see how we can provide a more friendly environment for technology to thrive.

SCHAFFLER: Is there anything different as far as Internet use in Africa, where the Internet is being used, compared to what we see here in the States. Is it a different sort of content or a different sort of means of communicating?

ENONCHONG: I think it`s very similar. You have people on Yahoo! (URL: http://www.yahoo.com/) and Hotmail, those are probably the most used and accessed Internet sites in Africa I would say. One of the - one statistic that is interesting is that for every dial-up connection in Africa, there are a minimum of three users for that dial-up connection. And then you have all these Internet cafes spreading up all over the continent. And so you have so many young people and -accessing the Internet. But the statistics just don`t show that.

SCHAFFLER: Give us a sense of any sort of timetable you have on goals as far as having more Internet access in Africa. Are you looking five years from now with like, you know, X amount of the country to be wired? any specific goals like that?

ENONCHONG: Actually, our goals are really right now to increase the amount of technology professionals. We`d like to see several hundred thousand technology professionals added within the next three years. The Internet is one way - one method of technology, but it`s not the only one. There are other crucial elements of technology that are lacking in Africa, especially telecommunications and general technology areas.

SCHAFFLER: It`s such a large market just based purely on population, that you would think that companies would be targeting it aggressively.

ENONCHONG: I think some companies can are. It`s just that the perception of Africa is a very dismal one. We saw just saw the story just a few minutes ago. Usually what - the stories that come out of Africa are very sad stories, stories of war, stories of poverty. And the stories of success aren`t covered. And there really is a lot of opportunity. And we really encourage, and we`re hoping that through the technology forum, we`ll be able to show companies worldwide that there are really good opportunities, market opportunities on the continent..

SCHAFFLER: Rebecca Enonchong of the Africa Technology Forum , thanks for joining us, appreciate it, good luck.

ENONCHONG: Thank you.