NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 15, 2013

Despite widespread agreement on the web’s potential to transform lives and reduce poverty, there is little information about how policymakers and investors should capitalize on this potential. A new report by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, supported by Google Africa, is one of the first to examine the Internet’s impact on social and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

The report reveals how Internet-enabled services affect the public and private sectors in seven areas: agriculture, health, finance, education, governance, energy & transport, and SME growth. It also outlines the pre-conditions for impact, looking at business and ICT infrastructure and factors that influence how and why users get online. The findings are based on a survey of 1,300 organizations in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal. The findings build on research done in other African countries, such as World Wide Worx’s South African study which showed that the Internet economy contributes up to 2% ($7.1 billion/R59-billion) to South Africa’s GDP.

Ory Okolloh, Policy and Government Relations Manager for Google Africa, said, “Whilst more and more Africans are coming online, the Internet’s potential is still largely untapped in Sub-Saharan Africa. This report intends to help policy makers capture the potential of the Internet for social and economic development—to help them understand how their constituencies already use the Internet, where the opportunities lie, what future potential for social impact the Internet offers, and what their countries need to do to get there.”