nformation technology has received a huge boost in Mauritania from the personal commitment of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya, who set up a special department on new technologies, operating under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s office. At its head, as State Secretary, is one of the country’s most dynamic professional women, Fatimetou Mint Mohamed-Saleck.

Cyber-cafe Internet access has increased dramatically over the last two years.

“These new technologies are seen not as gadgets or luxuries, but as a means of speeding up the country’s development and enabling it to participate constructively in the process of globalization,” Fatimetou Mint Mohamed-Saleck says.

Some people might think it strange that a desert nation that remained so long isolated from mainstream events should embrace IT and related technologies so enthusiastically. But the State Secretary argues that this is in keeping with the Mauritanian character. “Such technologies are well suited to the Mauritanian’s lifestyle,” she says. “Theirs is a nomadic lifestyle that is not tied to a town or even a specific place. They like to be where they want to be, and to communicate with whoever they wish. One could say that they turn the world into their village.”

Even those Mauritanians who have adopted a more sedentary lifestyle have taken to IT and mobile telephony easily. When the New Technologies department was set up two years ago, there were just four cyber-cafes in Mauritania. “Now there are 60,” Fatimetou Mint Mohamed-Saleck says with satisfaction, “not counting communication centers or cyber-forums that can be found in city halls and elsewhere.”
Over the same period of time, mobile-phone use has rocketed, with the number of subscribers rising from around 30,000 to over 200,000 today.

Liberalization of the telecom sector undoubtedly helped that growth, by stimulating competition. But she also highlights the importance of the government’s policy of promoting universal access to basic services.
“In order to reach all our citizens, my department has organized an ‘Internet caravan’, which, as its name suggests, is a mobile school,” she says. “This caravan doesn’t just disseminate new technologies, but also looks for ways and means of finding outlets for local produce and enabling people to stay where they are.”

The department has received help from the World Bank and is working with an organization called World Links, which has provided IT to equip about a dozen colleges and high schools in Nouakchott.