ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the COVID-19 crisis provides a big push to Africa’s digitalisation, by measuring how different dimensions of digital transformation evolved between and after 2019. According to our estimates comparing 2019 and 2020, cross-border data transfer soared by over 50% in at least 42 bilateral internet connections involving an African country. Mobile money transactions increased by 15%. Investments in information and communication technology (ICT) sector attracted US$8.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2020, reaching the highest recorded level since 2003. The period also saw an increase in digital innovations by private and public actors. New national, regional and continental policies accompanied this trend. We argue that developing digitalisation is one important component of strategies to develop resilience and face complex crises like COVID-19. The introduction lays out the research objectives, their contributions to the extant literature and the methodology used to answer the research question. The following section briefly introduces the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Africa’s economies. The core of the chapter examines the scope of Africa’s digital transformation before and after 2020. First, it analyses the state of Africa’s digitalisation before 2020. Second, it analyses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in accelerating Africa’s digitalisation, since 2020 when COVID-19 hit the continent. The third section examines persisting challenges the continent faces to realise the benefits of digital transformation, from which we draw policy recommendations to shape more resilient African economies.
