Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub- Saharan Africa

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub- Saharan Africa PDF Author: Piet Buys
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 2008021211
Category : Cell phones
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub- Saharan Africa

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub- Saharan Africa PDF Author: Piet Buys
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 2008021211
Category : Cell phones
Languages : en
Pages : 26

Get Book

Book Description
Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Piet Buys
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa

Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Piet Buys
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cell Phone
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
Abstract: Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.

Digital Connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Perspective

Digital Connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Perspective PDF Author: Mr.Emre Alper
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513515926
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Higher digital connectivity is expected to bring opportunities to leapfrog development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Experience within the region demonstrates that if there is an adequate digital infrastructure and a supportive business environment, new forms of business spring up and create jobs for the educated as well as the less educated. The paper first confirms the global digital divide through the unsupervised machine learning clustering K-means algorithm. Next, it derives a composite digital connectivity index, in the spirit of De Muro-Mazziotta-Pareto, for about 190 economies. Descriptive analysis shows that majority of SSA countries lag in digital connectivity, specifically in infrastructure, internet usage, and knowledge. Finally, using fractional logit regressions we document that better business enabling and regulatory environment, financial access, and urbanization are associated with higher digital connectivity.

Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa

Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa PDF Author: Bruce Mutsvairo
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 904853822X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Despite issues associated with the digital divide, mobile telephony is growing on the continent and the rise of smartphones has given citizens easy access to social networking sites. But the digital divide, which mostly reflects on one's race, gender, socioeconomic status or geographical location, stands in the way of digital progress. What opportunities are available to tame digital disparities? How are different societies in Africa handling digital problems? What innovative methods are being used to provide citizens with access to critical information that can help improve their lives? Experiences from various locations in several sub-Saharan African countries have been carefully selected in this collection with the aim of providing an updated account on the digital divide and its impact in Africa.

Bridging the Mobile Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: Costing under Demographic Change and Urbanization

Bridging the Mobile Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: Costing under Demographic Change and Urbanization PDF Author: Mr.Emre Alper
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513521853
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Digital connectivity, including through the modern cellular network technologies, is expected to play a key role for the Future of Work in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimate the cost of introducing a full-scale 4G network by 2025 in SSA and an operable 5G network by 2040. We adapt the costing model of Lombardo (2019) by accounting for the significant demographic transformation and rapid urbanization in SSA. We use the WorldPop and GADM databases and the UN’s medium-variant population projections to project the population densities at the highest level of administrative division for each SSA country in 2025 and 2040. For full 4G connectivity, the required capital and operational costs stands approximately at US$14 billion by 2025 and for 5G connectivity, costs amount to US$57 billion in 2040, conditional on having the 4G in place by 2025. These costs roughly translate to 8.4 percent of annual subscriber income, on a median basis, by 2025 for 4G and 4.9 percent of subscriber income by 2040 for 5G. Having the infrastructure in place is not sufficient to bridge the mobile Digital Divide. In addition, policies are needed to address affordability and knowledge gaps.

Responsible Design, Implementation and Use of Information and Communication Technology

Responsible Design, Implementation and Use of Information and Communication Technology PDF Author: Marié Hattingh
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030450023
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
This two-volume set constitutes the proceedings of the 19th IFIP WG 6.11 Conference on e-Business, e-Services, and e-Society, I3E 2020, held in Skukuza, South Africa, in April 2020.* The total of 80 full and 7 short papers presented in these volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 191 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Part I: block chain; fourth industrial revolution; eBusiness; business processes; big data and machine learning; and ICT and education Part II: eGovernment; eHealth; security; social media; knowledge and knowledge management; ICT and gender equality and development; information systems for governance; and user experience and usability *Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential worldwide imposed travel restrictions and lockdown, the I3E 2020 conference event scheduled to take place in Skukuza, South Africa, was unfortunately cancelled.

Digital Senegal for Inclusive Growth

Digital Senegal for Inclusive Growth PDF Author: Marcio Cruz
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464816875
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
Senegal, like all African countries, needs better and more jobs for its growing population. The main message of Digital Senegal for Inclusive Growth is that broader use of productivity-enhancing technologies by households and enterprises can generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. Adoption of better technologies can support both Senegal’s short-term objective of economic recovery and its vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. But this is not automatic. This book leverages a novel survey instrument that measures adoption of technologies at the firm level. Results from this survey show that there is a large average technological gap in Senegal relative to firms in Brazil, in the range of 36 and 30 percent for extensive (whether firms use it at all) and intensive (the most frequently applied) uses of better technologies such as for business administration. Except for a small number of firms, enterprises still mostly use manual, analog technologies to perform general and sector specific business functions. Micro-size informal enterprises lag even further. The benefits from technology adoption are significant. Digital technologies are an enabler of economy-wide productivity and jobs growth by catalyzing adoption of complementary technologies, including many not accessible without digital infrastructure. For households, mobile internet coverage is associated with 14 percent higher total consumption, as well as a 10 percent lower extreme poverty rate—and jobs with higher earnings. Firms with better technologies have higher levels of productivity, generate more jobs, and increase the share of lower-skilled workers on their payroll, on average: an increase in technological sophistication across general business functions that the firm uses most intensively, such as using standard software rather than writing by hand for business administration, is associated with a 14 percent higher jobs growth rate. For these and other inclusive growth benefits to be realized, Senegal should focus on ensuring availability of affordable digital infrastructure and implementing targeted incentives to promote use by firms of better technologies as well as policies to narrow deepening digital divides across enterprises and households.

Mobile Phones and Development in Africa

Mobile Phones and Development in Africa PDF Author: Jenny C. Aker
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031418859
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
This book focuses on the impact of information technology on the lives and livelihoods of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa, where simple mobile phones have leapfrogged traditional communication and financial technologies, and thus, arguably, offer some of the greatest potential for development. Drawing on primary and secondary research from a variety of disciplines, the authors examine the evolution of mobile phone coverage and adoption in sub-Saharan Africa over the past two decades, before exploring the main channels through which mobile phones can affect development. They then review initiatives on “digitizing development” and evaluate empirical evidence on their impact. The book argues that digital has yet to live up to the hype, ending with a set of questions that stakeholders should ask (and answer) when using digital technology for promoting development.

Digital Inequalities in the Global South

Digital Inequalities in the Global South PDF Author: Massimo Ragnedda
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303032706X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem – a binary division between ‘haves and have-nots’ – to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments. This book outlines and evaluates the role of state and public institutions in facilitating these changes and consequently bridging the digital divide.