The head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has urged African countries to expand the affordability of the internet to help “improve the economic future” of citizens.

CEO Rod Beckstrom said, “I would like to throw down the gauntlet to invite the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGDA) heads to use the internet to help all their people. It’s small steps for them and yet it would be a huge leap forward for the future of Africa.”  The IGAD was formed in 1986 and is made up of six countries, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The organisation was originally formed to deal with the effects of severe East African drought. Beckstrom said that the lack of the web is like a new drought.

“Africa’s young generation is already embracing the internet, any way it can, And they want more,” said Beckstrom. “77% of Kenyans want to spend more time online; 63% want more and better access to the internet.” ICANN estimates that around one billion people, 15% of the world’s population, live on the African continent, yet they make up less than 7% of all internet users.

Yesterday we reported that the findings of a BBC World Service poll revealed that four out of five people around the world believe that internet access is a ‘fundamental right’.