ICT Infrastructure Expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis of Six West African Countries from 1995 to 2002

Abstract

AbstractThe World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the UN and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) argue that ICT infrastructure and informatization are prerequisites to adequate development in the present era. The ITU has proposed a framework for measuring ICT efficiency and its impact on social development. However, it offered no advice on how to develop, model and implement this proposal. In this chapter, we use data envelopment analysis to address one aspect of the ITU proposal, the measurement of the efficiency of investments in ICT infrastructure development. The study makes two important contributions: (1) It provides a methodology for assessing the efficiency of investments in ICT; (2) it provides insights into the structuring development policies to benefit from effective allocation of scarce resources in developing countries.KeywordsData Envelopment AnalysisUnited NationsEfficiency ScoreCellular TelephoneCivil InfrastructureThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.