By Olakunle Agboola – The digital age accelerated exponentially when access to the Internet expanded beyond the military and academia, where it was first used. Today, fewer than 30 years after it opened commercial traffic, the entire global economy depends on the Internet, and we rely on it in almost every aspect of our daily lives.
The dependent on the use of internet makes it difficult to imagine a world without it. Yet more than 4 billion people — the majority of the global population — still await the reality of living in a connected world. In Africa, a 2016 Pew Research Center survey revealed that Africa had the lowest median percentage of adults who use the Internet at least occasionally — 25 percent, as compared to 80 percent in Europe, 72 percent in the Middle East, and 58 percent in Asia and the Pacific. However, Internet usage varies across the continent. Almost 40 percent of adults in Nigeria use the Internet that frequently, while 25 percent in Ghana do. Uganda and Ethiopia had very low rates, at 11 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
These numbers are poised to change, however, as investors, entrepreneurs, and humanitarians are all responding to the digital divide across the African continent. Efforts centre on bringing advanced technologies to less developed countries and building new markets. Africa is tapping into the digital revolution, even though many Africans still suffer from inadequate power supply. Talking to founder of Econet wireless, Strive Masiyiwa over the weekend, he believes that the digital revolution will allow Africa to “leapfrog” or skip older, less efficient technologies and directly embrace more advanced solutions. One example of this concept is the remarkable adoption of mobile phones and smartphones across the African continent.
In 2016, approximately 80 percent of people living in Africa owned some kind of mobile phone, a sizeable increase from 71 percent in 2014. Smartphones are less common than basic mobile phones. Still, the rapid growth of this technology is of interest, given that many of these people never owned a landline phone to begin with. Bypassing the landline phone and going straight to mobile phone ownership is not uncommon in Africa. This sharp transition highlights the uniqueness of the digital revolution in Africa. Instead of the slower, centuries-long pace of technological and economic development that occurred in Europe and the US, many Africans are transitioning from having no technology at all to owning highly sophisticated devices. In some cases, this is happening overnight.
This shift has gained speed over the past decade for a number of reasons. The number of undersea cables encircling the continent — which facilitate faster Internet access in more locations — has increased dramatically. Satellites have also made it more possible for people to enjoy 3G mobile telecommunications technology — and 4G in some major urban areas. Africa’s largely rural population, immense size, and underdeveloped transportation network make it more expensive and difficult to build land-based telecommunications infrastructure.
Just as satellites and other infrastructure have enabled greater connectivity, so have lower prices for smartphones, which now cost less than $100 per unit. More smartphones mean a larger network of Internet connections across the continent. Alongside these improvements in hardware and infrastructure, the continent’s entrepreneurs are also stepping up — and investors are taking notice. The rate of investment in African companies has increased significantly over the past five years. Venture capitalists invested $40 million in African tech startups in 2012; just two years later, in 2014, that figure had increased to more than $400 million. Across the continent, there are more than 200 tech innovation hubs and thousands of tech-related ventures. Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; Cairo, Egypt; and Durban, South Africa are just a few of the major cities where entrepreneurial ecosystems are thriving.
The Internet and other tools of the digital revolution are valuable because they’ve allowed us to accomplish one of our most significant achievements as humans: the storage and transmission of ever-increasing amounts of information. The digital revolution is built on the premise that information is the newly prized currency of the world economy. People want to connect and communicate in order to share and obtain knowledge. The alternative is to be left behind and miss out on opportunities for progress and prosperity in the 21st century.
In Africa, leaders in business, education, healthcare, finance, government, and other sectors are focusing on this connection between technology and knowledge. This approach will help create much-needed employment opportunities that can change lives, improve communities, and advance the economy of the entire continent. Ultimately, it can improve the quality of life for millions of people. Digital revolution in Africa is very much ongoing and it is shaping business and connecting us to the global community.
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