Internet access: an amazingly empowering resource but one which all too many of us have come to take for granted. Not so for Dr Nii Quaynor, the ‘father of the internet in Africa’.
Internet access: an amazingly empowering resource but one which all too many of us have come to take for granted. Not so for Dr Nii Quaynor, the ‘father of the internet in Africa’.
Dr Nii Quaynor set up the first company in West Africa to operate internet services. His efforts championing African involvement in international internet policies won him the prestegious Postel Award from the Internet Society in 2007.
The Jonathan B Postel Services Award is presented to ‘a person who has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community.’ Lynn St. Amour, the Internet Society President noted “Dr Quaynor has selflessly pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, enabling profound advances in information access, education, healthcare and commerce for African countries and their citizens.”
As a developing continent Africa lags behind Europe in the provision of many services – food, clean water and basic healthcare normally being the focus. But Dr Quaynor believes that by embracing the digital age Africa could better deal with these problems. In an interview reported in NewScientist magazine he enthuses “Africa is about to miss out on a great development opportunity . . . unless serious and committed efforts are made by Africa to address the rapid expansion of the digital divide.”
In response to critics he told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme. “If the critics did not have any Internet, I am sure they would talk differently”.
Born in Ghana in West Africa, about 3150 miles (5050km) south of Dublin, Dr Quaynor studied Engineering Science and Computer Science in the USA. He returned to Africa, and in 1988 he set up a company which in 1994 became the first in West Africa to provide internet services.
Internet access is still at less than 5% in Sub-Saharan Africa – Dr Quaynor looks to the convergence of mobile phones and internet as a promising technology and describes the one laptop per child project as “a welcome development”.
