Digital divide and economic development: case study of sub‐Saharan Africa

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nexus between the digital divide and development and discusses attempts being made at continental, regional and country levels to bridge the digital divide in sub‐Saharan Africa.

An analytical and comparative approach of global e‐readiness, digital opportunity, and information society indices is applied to infer the status of the digital divide in sub‐Saharan Africa.

The paper finds that there is a link between bridging the digital divide and economic development. However, there is as yet no unanimity as to whether the digital divide is narrowing or widening in developing countries including those in sub‐Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, countries in sub‐Saharan Africa are making tremendous strides, especially in infrastructure development and mobile phone connectivity, to bridge the digital divide.

An empirical study is needed to determine the impact of the surge in infrastructure and policy development in sub‐Saharan Africa with regard to bridging the digital divide.

Hitherto, attempts to measure the extent of the digital divide between and within countries have largely relied on e‐readiness rankings and have rarely used other relevant indices that are available, such as e‐government, information society, and digital opportunity indices. The use of a wide range of indices to infer the breadth and depth of the digital divide between sub‐Saharan Africa and the developed world would provide a clearer picture of the extent of the divide.

The paper demonstrates that several tools other than e‐readiness ranking can be used to measure the breadth and depth of the digital divide. The paper brings to the fore the importance of addressing sub‐Saharan Africa's digital divide peculiarities using extraordinary interventions.