As young Africans push to be online, data cost stands in the way

A customer uses the WiFi on her mobile phone at an Internet cafe in the low-income Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya. Nearly three-quarters of African youth see universal WiFi as a human right, but sky-high data costs from Ghana to South Africa mean only one in eight can afford to be online all the time, new research shows. — AP

JOHANNESBURG/ACCRA: Alongside the food, clothing and nappies gifted to a shelter for South African flood victims, one donation proved especially popular – a WiFi router.

The router allowed the students to finish assignments, helped the unemployed find jobs and meant seamstresses could download dress patterns – tasks that had been tricky for many of them previously due to South Africa’s high Internet costs.