Africa Technology Forum Outlines Strategic Initiatives to Close Africa's Digital Divide.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2001

The Africa Technology Forum (www.africatechforum.com), a global non-profit organization dedicated to growing technology in Africa and encouraging African entrepreneurship, has announced several new initiatives that promise to help Africa bridge the digital divide.

The initiatives include:

-- A mass information / education campaign in Africa touting the benefits of
technology, using many of the means utilized to transmit the AIDS message.

-- A campaign to increase the number of technology professionals through
training programs delivered over radio, through existing learning institutions,
with inexpensive books, and through other mass means.

-- A project to define what environment is needed for technology to thrive in
Africa and to communicate this to policy-makers. This will focus on
infrastructure and laws, for example.

The need for these pro-active initiatives in Africa is illustrated by bleak statistics. It is estimated that while Africa is home to more than 10 percent of the world's population, the continent accounts for less than one percent of the world's Internet users and two-thirds of those are in South Africa.

The U.N. says that Africa's 780 million people have as many Internet hosts as the small country of Latvia, which has a population of 2.5 million.

"By targeting the populations of Africa directly as well as the continent's governments, we believe Africa will be able to take her rightful place on the world technology stage," said African-born Rebecca Enonchong, CEO of AppsTech Inc., and founding member of the Africa Technology Forum. "We recognize that getting the governments of Africa involved will be one of our greatest challenges, but we hope that by showing results in technology-friendly nations first, the more reticent governments will come around," said Enonchong.

The new initiatives were outlined at WorldSpace Corporation in Washington, D.C. during the first networking reception sponsored by the Africa Technology Forum, which consists of high-level technology executives and companies with interests in Africa.

More than 130 technology entrepreneurs and executives turned out for the session in which Reggie Aggarwal, CEO of Cvent, spoke about successfully building the Indian CEO High Tech Council, a similar CXO networking group that Aggarwal co-founded.

Since the Africa Technology Forum was established in October 2000, it has attracted worldwide attention from within the high technology community.

Founding members include Rebecca Enonchong, Founder & CEO of AppsTech Inc.; Noah Samara, Chairman & CEO of WorldSpace Corporation; Alberto Olympio, Co-Founder & Technical Director of Galaxie Informatique International; Amadou Mahtar Ba, President of allAfrica.com; Samuel Suraphel, Founder & CEO of i3afri Global Inc.; and Leslie Noukelak, COO of AfricaToday.com.

About the Africa Technology Forum

The Africa Technology Forum is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering high technology entrepreneurship in the African community by providing a forum for members to share ideas and intelligence on the high-tech industry. Its mission is to create an environment in Africa that will encourage the growth of the high-tech industry throughout the continent.

More information about the Africa Technology Forum can be found at www.africatechforum.com.