Digital economy in Africa: condition and problems of development

Abstract

Today, much attention is paid to the development of the digital economy in most countries of the world. African countries are no exception. The purpose is to provide a general analysis of the digital economy in Africa and to assess the correlation between the digitalization and the economic growth. As the main research methods, rating and statistical approaches were used to analyze the development of the digital economy in Africa, as well as correlation analysis to identify the relationship between digitalization and economic growth. The hypothesis of the significance of digitalization as a factor in the economic growth of African countries is being tested. The results confirmed the hypothesis only partially. It was found that for most African states, such a relationship exists and varies depending on the country from medium (Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia) to very strong (Morocco, Rwanda, Kenya). At the same time, there is a whole group of countries, for which digitalization and economic growth are poorly interconnected. Ranking African countries according to the degree of interconnection between digitalization and economic growth should be the basis for further research in order to determine the place of digitalization in a number of factors of economic growth and development. The article identifies key problems in the development of the digital economy on the continent, including limited access to electricity, the low level of development of the Internet infrastructure, the gender gap in the use of digital technologies, as well as the insufficient level of funding for digital transformation.