Research conducted by Kenyan-based Portland Communications and Tweetminster indicate 11.5 million tweets originated from Africa in the last three months of 2011.The report launched in Nairobi and posted on the researcher’s website indicates young people Tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa.It said “60% of Africa's most active Tweeters are aged 20-29, and 57% of Tweets from Africa are sent from mobile devices.”This is the first ever attempt to map Twitter on the continent, and it was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa's most active Tweeters.The reported showed that South Africa had the highest volume of Tweets recording some 5,030,226, which is more than twice that of second place Kenya with 2,476,800.Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, had only 1,646,212 tweets from its more than 160 million people; followed by Egypt with 1,214,062 and Morocco with 745,620 tweets.But there was no clear indication of how many people tweeted in Ghana within the period under review.The report noted that Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation, as 81% of those polled say they mainly used it for communicating with friends.“Twitter is becoming an important source of information in Africa, as 68% of those polled said they use Twitter to monitor news, and 22% use it to search for employment opportunities,” the report said.The research also found that African Twitter users are active across a range of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.The study also found that Twitter is helping to form new links within Africa, as reflected by majority of those surveyed saying that at least half of the Twitter accounts they follow are based on the continent.It quoted Portland Communications’ partner for Digital Communications, Mark Flanagan as saying "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.”Flanagan argued that 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.Associate Director and Head of Portland Nairobi, Beatrice Karanja was also quoted as saying "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.She noted that Twitter is helping Africa and Africans to connect in new ways and swap information and views, adding that can only be good for Africa as it is for the rest of the world.