From BizTechAfrica.

The presidency of Togo, a tiny West African nation of 6 million people, has the best presidential website in Africa out of the 40 countries surveyed by Jeune Afrique magazine.

Togo is closely followed by Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Gabon and Uganda, according to the survey by the Paris-based publication.

Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Tunisia and Ghana complete the top 10 list. The Democratic Republic of Congo (www.presidentrdc.cd) ranked 30th, the report, authored by Emeline Wuilbercq and Mathieu Olivier, revealed.

Surprisingly, Rwanda, the country ruled by one of the best-Tweeting presidents in the world (Paul Kagame), came in 17th place.

“This demonstrates that one doesn’t need millions of dollars to manage the best website in the world. You just need to be well-organised and serious, and know what you really want to achieve out of that website, and work and plan accordingly,” ICT teacher Euloge Samba told Biztechafrica.

“The president’s digital portal is a key platform that must be well-taken care of – meaning regularly updated, well designed, fast to display and easy to use, where people looking for information must find what they are looking for in all forms of objectivity,” he added.

Jeune Afrique said its survey was based on criteria such as links to social networks (Facebook, Twitter), multilingualism, the beauty of the site, easy-to-surf, regular update, the existence of a mobile application, among others.

The DRC presidency’s 30th place came as a no surprise for local observers who strongly believe that ICT leaders in this vast Central African nation still have a lot of work to do despite making some strides in the past few years.

Many government institutions in the DRC do not have digital portals, while the existing ones appear to not be functioning well.

The Jeune Afrique survey vehemently criticised African presidents’ websites, many of which it found to be dysfunctional and not suitable to be instruments of communication at such level.

Some links on these portals were also not leading anywhere, Jeune Afrique said.

Read more at BizTechAfrica.