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The Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has urged African countries to expand the reach and affordability of the Internet in their respective countries to help improve the economic future of their citizens. Rod Beckstrom opened ICANN’s 37th International Meeting here by calling on African leaders, including those scheduled to attend a Tuesday (March 9) meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Center, where the ICANN conference is also being hosted.
“I would like to throw down the gauntlet to invite IGAD heads to join us here tomorrow and to use the Internet to help all their people,” said Beckstrom. “It’s a small steps for them and yet it would be a huge leap forward for the future of Africa.”
IGAD is made up of six countries, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. It was created in
1986 to combat the devastating effects of a severe East African drought. But, Beckstrom said, “a new drought has emerged in much of the same region, an Internet access drought, compared to other parts of the world.”
Beckstrom pointed to Kenya as a prime example of an African state that has embraced the emerging online world, with its growing fibre optic system and its potential for expansion across the continent.