Publication Date: 2021/02/05
Abstract: In order to accurately analyze the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on economic growth in Africa, 51 African countries were selected from the 5 sub-regions thus; from the East, West, South, Central, and North Africa within 20 years from 2000 to 2019. Design/methodology/approach - The outcome of this paper is measured by estimating pooled ordinary least squares (POLS), random and fixed effects (RE & FE), and system-generalized method of moment models (sysGMM). The individual internet users, mobile telephone subscription and fixed telephone subscribers are the ICT indicators with foreign direct investment, domestic credit provided by the private sector, and level of international trade serving as control variables. Findings - The findings show that: (1) ICT development has a statistically significant positive relationship with economic growth, (2) that the three ICT indicators are significantly different in their output determination, (3) the findings confirm that the "leapfrogging" hypothesis exists in the African context, (4) it is observed that percentage of people using the internet has the immense capacities to empower Africa to skip traditional developmental stages across all the estimates, (5) and in terms of the regressions for the sub-samples, it shows statistically significant differences in the output elasticity of ICT indicators. Suggestions - Based on the above findings, we suggest that it is necessary to propose policy recommendations to reduce costs caused by the use of communication technology facilities, including the cost of buying a cellular phone, Internet connectivity rates, and subscription rates.
Keywords: Africa; Economic Growth; ICT; Impact; Leapfrogging
DOI: No DOI Available
PDF: https://ijirst.demo4.arinfotech.co/assets/upload/files/IJISRT21JAN632.pdf
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