I n t e r n a t i o n a l Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadoun Toure, said that $8 billion was invested in the development of Information and C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Technology (ICT) in Africa in 2008. Toure disclosed this at a world press conference to mark the end of the African Telecom Development Summit 2009 held in Abuja. He commended the giant strides made in the telecommunications industry in the last decade, adding that there are currently about 250 million subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to him, "It has been an extra-ordinary decade for Africa and it gives me great personal pleasure to see how the continent has taken huge steps forward in bringing connectivity to African people. Just ten years ago, virtually nobody in Africa had a mobile phone; today across the continent mobile cellular subscription teledensity has reached 32.6 per cent, with some 250 million subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa."