Africa’s Digitalization 

By: Freda Gray

Africa’s contribution, in comparison to the rest of the world where digitization and digital skills are becoming core to economic growth and prosperity, is unclear. The overall sentiment is that Africa is behind and only when we measure this, can we start managing the different elements to ensure attention and progress in the right areas.

This is important because: “As the world’s youngest continent, Africa will make up one-fifth of the total workforce and one-third of the total youth workforce in the world by 2030, adding 10 to 12 million young people to the workforce each year.” (Munyati, 2020)

The thought-provoking report “Digitalization and Digital skills gaps in Africa – an empirical profile” authored by Bhorat, Signe, Asmal, Monnakgotla, and Rooney was launched towards the end of May 2023 and deserves detailed study. The Digitalization Gap Index was particularly interesting with specific results for Africa, and the country-based measuring of skills supply vs demand (with the gap measured as a result) was piloted in South Africa.

Digitalization Index:

The index is based on the World Bank’s definition of the Digital Economy’s foundational pillars including:

1. Digital infrastructure (the availability and quality of digital technologies),

2. Digital entrepreneurship (the environment that enables the creation and growth of digital businesses),

3. Digital finance (the use of digital technologies to support financial activities),

4. Digital public participation (the use of digital technologies to facilitate governments’ digital engagement with citizens, and

5. Digital skills (the availability of a skilled workforce to support the development and use of digital technologies).

Accurate data is a challenge for Africa and the authors warn that in some cases the results may be upwardly biased. In addition, 2017 data was used, that doesn’t account for developments in the last 5 years. To give context to African results, they were compared to those of the G20 countries.

• The extraordinarily high proportion of countries in the sample that do not meet the G20 cut-off in the other dimensions suggests that it is not just the skills dimension that warrants attention. All dimensions will also need to be considered in any strategy that aims to develop digital economies in Africa to standards elsewhere.

• The element contributing most to the digital gap index in 2017 is the Digital Infrastructure and panellists agreed that this needs to be addressed from an ecosystem point of view. Infrastructure relates not only to access, but also access to electricity and the cost of access (among other elements).

• Of the countries included in the study, the most vulnerable overall are Niger, Malawi, Madagascar, Benin and Ethiopia.

One of the panellists, Lesly Goh, Senior Technology Advisor at the World Bank, shared the positive impact of digitization measured in an agricultural project in Kenya, illustrating that even previously low-tech industries benefit significantly from digitization.

The report makes various policy recommendations including digital skills development and notes that this is intrinsically linked to improving access to digital infrastructure, digital platforms and interventions to stimulate demand for the skills developed. It was noted that primary schools are least likely to have digital infrastructure to develop digital skills.

Other fascinating statistics from the webinar panelists:

• By 2035 the number of Africans joining the workforce will exceed that of the rest of the world combined. (Cecilia Värendh Månsson, Founder and CEO - TalentUp Africa)

• According to Alison Gillwald, Executive Director at Research ICT Africa, there is strong evidence that education is a key determinant of internet access.

• She also mentioned that among those not using the internet, not knowing what it is or not having access to the internet are key drivers of their lack of engagement.

• In a question about the role of primary school education in promoting digital skills, Zaakhir Asmal (Research Officer, Development Policy Research Unit of the University of Cape Town) explained that primary schools need to ensure solid development of cognitive skills and that programmes should include digital infrastructure in the learning process and not just offer theoretical interaction. Primary school learners should have physical interaction with technology.

⁎You can access the full report here: https://www.brookings.edu/research/digitalization-and-digital-skills-gaps-in-africa-an-empirical-profile/