WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 201 / 356
[A35] Nearly 4% of households had a computer at home. By comparison, 15.96% of
households had at least one member of the household with an e-mail address. This
indicates that internet is predominantly accessed from work or cyber cafés. Computer
penetration remains dismally low across the continent. Even in the economic powerhouse of
the continent, South Africa, only 12% of households have a working computer at home. This
was followed by Botswana at 6.5%, Namibia at 4.5% and Cameroon at just below 4%.
Tanzania showed the lowest household PC penetration, at less than 1%, followed by
Uganda at 1.5% and Rwanda under 2%.
Figure 5-28 Computer penetration in household
Besides this, if one looks at gender breakdowns for rural areas in Botswana and Namibia, of
the few who have phones, considerably more men have phones than women, reflecting the
predominance of phone ownership by men in less developed economies. The equity of
phone distribution would appear to correlate with those countries with increased
urbanization, and disparities in access appear greater where services represent a scare
resource and access is more limited.