Gideon F. For-mukwai

China Torch Center, an agency of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, is opening an incubation centre in Singapore for Chinese IT and high-tech corporations that want to enter the global marketplace.

Nigerian criminals who have masterminded a series of fraudulent online schemes in several African countries are on the run in South Africa, according to local news reports.

Online schemes operating out of Nigeria that have defrauded victims out of tens of millions of dollars have become so pervasive that the U.S. government has given the West African country until November to take steps to decrease such crimes or face sanctions.

African nations are increasingly turning to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to bypass expensive conventional telephone systems.

The Nigerian government is pursuing an aggressive IT drive meant to shed the image that Africa's most populous nation and one of the continent's largest economies is a technology laggard.

Africa has surpassed the 4 million mark for Internet users, according to figures recently released by a South African Internet researcher.

As part of the ongoing effort to clamp down on software piracy, Microsoft Corp.'s South African subsidiary has asked local companies to sign declarations that they are using legal copies of Microsoft's products.

The development of the Internet in Africa is playing a vital role in transforming the media there, more than 200 African journalists agreed at a recent meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, marking World Press Freedom Day.