’12 million Sudanese connect to internet’: Ministry

More than half of the Sudanese population have a mobile phone subscription, and nearly 12 million are connected to the internet.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology announced that the number of mobile phone subscribers has risen to 28.3 million, while the number of internet users has reached 11,6 million.

In July 2014 there were 9.7 million Sudanese internet users according international website analysts Internetlivestats. The estimated population of Sudan in 2014 ranged between 35.5 million and 39.3 million, according to IndexMundi and the World Bank respectively.

The Ministry of Communications and IT presented its report of the first quarter of 2016 before the Sudanese Parliament on Monday. The number of information centres in Sudanese states is now 18, and there are 159 centres for information management at the state and federal ministries.

146 data centres have been established so far for Ministry databases, in 97 localities. So far, 84 localities have been connected to the national grid.

The Ministry said that there are more than 6,000 IT specialists working in Sudan, and there are 100,000 people working in IT.

There are 95 local government ministries connected to the national grid, according to the report. Governments in any of the five states in Darfur, for example, have at least ten ministries.