-Cell phones reshape youth cultures

About 650 million Africans, particularly the youths, are mobile phone users, for social and functional purposes. With internet prices coming down, connectivity increasing and new mobile apps sprouting, analysts predict a game changer for the continent’s development, reports Africa Renewal’s Jocelyne Sambira.

The sight of teenagers selling mushrooms using mobile phones is becoming a familiar one in rural Namibia. Namibia Polytechnic faculty member Maurice Nkusi, designer of a cell phone–based curriculum, told the TechDailyNews that most of these children have never even used a computer. But the rapidity with which they master new technology reflects the era in which they are living.

Cell phones today are nearly ubiquitous in Africa. The World Bank and African Development Bank report there are 650 million mobile users in Africa, surpassing the number in the United States and or Europe. In some African countries more people have access to a mobile phone than to clean water, a bank account or electricity, the agencies add. Read more