New research reveals who is leading with Twitter across Africa.

New research reveals South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco lead with Tweeting on the African continent

Young people Tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, according to How Africa Tweets, the first comprehensive study of Twitter in Africa and which was undertaken by Portland Communications, a strategic communications consultancy with a specialism in Africa.

In the first ever attempt to comprehensively map the use of Twitter in Africa, Portland Communications and Tweetminster analysed over 11.5 million geo-located Tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. Tweetminster is a media platform that helps people and organisations discover the most relevant content about their personal and professional interests by dynamically analysing and organising in real time what networks of experts and influencers around any topic, industry or market are paying attention to.

This pan-African analysis of Twitter traffic was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa's most active Tweeters.

How Africa Tweets used geo-location to accurately identify the country of origin of Tweets. A geo-located Tweet refers to a Tweet sent by a user who has enabled location-based services.

Mark Flanagan, Portland's Partner for Digital Communications, says: "One of the more surprising findings of this research is that more public figures have not joined Africa's burgeoning Twittersphere.

With some notable exceptions, we found that business and political leaders were largely absent from the debates playing out on Twitter across the continent. As Twitter lifts off in Africa, governments, businesses and development agencies can really no longer afford to stay out of a new space where dialogue will increasingly be taking place."

How Africa Tweets found that Twitter is helping to form new links within Africa. The majority of those surveyed said that at least half of the Twitter accounts they follow are based on the continent.

The pace of growth of Twitter in Africa is now beginning to transform the communications and media landscape on the continent and, according to Beatrice Karanja, Associate Director and head of Portland Nairobi, Twitter offers Africa a powerful tool for creating connections.

"We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa's Twitter revolution is really just beginning. Twitter is helping Africa and Africans to connect in new ways and swap information and views. And for Africa – as for the rest of the world – that can only be good."

The key findings of How Africa Tweets and a high-resolution version of the infographic can be found at www.portland-communications.com.

Portland Communications hopes that this survey will serve as a benchmark for measuring the evolution of Twitter use in Africa, shedding new light on how Africa communicates nationally, regionally and internationally.