Here at oAfrica, we strive to provide weekly recaps of weekly African ICT news from every country using a variety of reputable online sources. The roundups are mostly a mix of government updates, private investment, business offerings, surveys, and tech events. In 2012, we made 55 such posts, covering approximately 1,036 headlines. In fact, we nearly posted twice as many headlines last year as in 2011. The reasons are two-fold: 1) the African tech space is really heating up and 2) we continue to improve our news gathering efforts.

We performed a quick unscientific audit to check which countries have the greatest online news representation on oAfrica.
Not surprisingly, South African tech stories were present more often than similar headlines from any other nation. Kenya and Nigeria were close behind. Countries like Zimbabwe, Ghana, Egypt, and Uganda are also in the top tier in terms of African ICT news representation. Still, the majority of African nations lack media exposure necessary to attract greater regional or international attention to tech developments.

The good news is that media outlets all over the world are covering more African ICT stories than ever before. Print newspapers are going digital amid greater online readership. And, despite a lack of traditional news coverage, tech communities in many African countries are becoming more influential and successful. Their successes are just decentralized from large news sources (think of Benin, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, etc.). In many cities, it is social media and the blogs – not news websites – that report on grassroots ICT advancements.

Our findings:

• Last year, a typical country was mentioned roughly every 3 weeks – up from every 5 weeks in 2011
• We have yet to find a story dedicated to Internet progress in Western Sahara
• After posting no headlines from Chad, CAR, Comoros, or Guinea-Bissau in 2011 we found at least 3 from each in 2012
• We posted a greater number of links to articles from every country except Seychelles and Burundi (same # as 2011)
• 16 of the same countries get mentioned at least every other week
• 23 countries are mentioned at most once per month
• By region, Southern Africa slightly edges West Africa and East Africa. North Africa is next with Central Africa far behind

Gainers (nations appearing in our recaps more frequently relative to others in 2012):

• Chad: -14 (from 52 to 37)
• DRC: -12 (from 33 to 20)
• Madagascar: -10 (from 46 to 35)
• Mauritius: -10 (from 31 to 21)
• Gabon: -8 (from 38 to 29)

Losers (nations appearing less frequently in our recaps relative to others in 2012):

• Burundi: +15 (from 28 to 42)
• Seychelles: +15 (from 33 to 47)
• Sudan: +13 (from 17 to 29)
• Eritrea: +10 (from 38 to 47)
• Niger: +10 (from 38 to 47)

Based on these findings, our continued goals will be to focus on the nations of Central Africa, along with the other fifteen countries that we only cover once per month.

The following table gives a breakdown of exactly how often a country was tagged in OA News posts. We don’t have stats on the exact number of posts per country, however.

Country	2012 OA News Presence	YoY Rank Change
South Africa	88%	0
Kenya	87%	0
Nigeria	84%	0
Zimbabwe	80%	-1
Egypt	75%	-3
Ghana	73%	2
Uganda	73%	-1
Tanzania	65%	-4
Zambia	64%	1
Rwanda	62%	4
Tunisia	60%	-1
Namibia	58%	0
Ethiopia	55%	2
Malawi	55%	1
Morocco	53%	-2
Liberia	49%	-3
Cameroon	45%	7
Angola	40%	-1
Botswana	40%	-1
Algeria	40%	-5
Sierra Leone	36%	9
Mauritius	36%	-10
Dem. Rep. of Congo	36%	-12
Senegal	33%	5
Cote D'Ivoire	33%	1
Libya	31%	3
Mali	31%	-5
Mozambique	27%	5
South Sudan	27%	na
Sudan	25%	13
Swaziland	25%	7
Gabon	25%	-8
Somalia	24%	5
Gambia	22%	6
Benin	22%	-4
Madagascar	18%	-10
Burkina Faso	16%	-1
Congo	15%	5
Djibouti	15%	0
Chad	15%	-14
Cape Verde	13%	8
Togo	13%	8
Burundi	11%	15
Lesotho	11%	5
Guinea	11%	-3
Mauritania	11%	-3
Equatorial Guinea	9%	9
Seychelles	7%	15
Eritrea	7%	10
Niger	7%	10
Sao Tome And Principe	7%	2
Central African Republic	5%	0
Comoros	5%	0
Guinea-Bissau	5%	0
Mayotte	4%	9
Reunion	4%	9
Western Sahara	0%	5