Attribution: Ritu Srivastava, “Tech in Pandemic Response, But Many Left Behind: Lessons from Africa,” ORF Issue Brief No. 609, February 2023, Observer Research Foundation.
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and services in many developing countries, aimed at maintaining continuity in business, employment, education, and the provision of basic citizen services. In turn, the increasing use of technology at work, to play, and to stay connected has shaped new digital habits.
The African continent, disproportionately affected by the pandemic, has proven itself innovative in its response, leveraging technology to bridge gaps and create solutions. Technology was a critical tool in Africa’s fight against COVID-19, enabling access to remote healthcare, providing up-to-date information, and creating platforms to facilitate digital transactions. Even as significant proportions of the population in the continent depend largely on the informal economy,[1] it was essential for governments, businesses, and the people to adopt a structured and phased approach to digital transformation in response to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governments, and the public, harnessed the use of emerging technologies for improving healthcare systems, embracing customer relationships, and fostering inclusion. A number of organisations such as the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) worked to ensure coordinated efforts at managing the fallout of the pandemic on both public health and the economy.[2]
According to analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO), over 120 health technology innovations[3] were piloted or adopted in Africa in 2020—this number represents 12.8 percent of such innovations designed across the world. These technologies targeted different areas of COVID-19 response, including surveillance, contact tracing, community engagement, treatment, laboratory systems, and prevention and control. South Africa had the highest number of innovations with 13 percent, followed by Kenya with 10 percent, Nigeria 8 percent, and Rwanda with 6 percent.
The adoption of digital technologies across different sectors is reflected in the increased demand for virtual modes of communication, resilient broadband infrastructure, the use of financial technology (fintech). Virtual work spaces also grew in number, and there was a rise in the use of e-commerce platforms.
This brief assesses the adoption of digital technologies and services by African governments, businesses, and the public as the pandemic surged in 2020 and 2021, focusing on the efforts earmarked for creating a flexible approach. It explores the adoption of technology and digital services amongst users for digital payments, e-commerce, advancement in healthcare systems, remote working, and customer engagement. It aims to help create a framework for more inclusive and equitable global strategies for pandemic response.
The ‘New Normal’ of Digital Tech
During the pandemic, users’ choices dramatically changed from offline to online mediums. At the same time, businesses and industries also changed their behaviour as per users’ demand to stay competitive in the new environment.
Prior to COVID-19, the pace of job creation in the African continent was already falling short compared to the rising demand from the young workforce. The intensity of using digital technologies was higher in financial and ICT services both in the formal and informal sectors. World Bank data shows that digitalisation of businesses and firms increased as the pandemic prolonged. For instance, around 71 percent of Kenyan businesses—most of them small manufacturers—adopted digital technologies from September to October 2020.[4]
During the lockdowns and in the aftermath, the digital technology industry grew immensely through incubators, startups, tech hubs, and data centres. The pandemic gave the African public the opportunity to adopt ‘digital first’ operating models and forced the continent to focus on innovation, local production, and self-reliance. Low-cost solutions and innovations emerged from rural and urban regions alike. More than 400 youth-driven technological hubs emerged across the continent,[5] with most of them residing in Laos in Nigeria, Nairobi in Kenya, and Cape Town in South Africa.
During the pandemic, many African governments started speeding up digitisation initiatives: they made internet access more affordable, and created different training pathways for healthcare, education and providing governance services. For example, the South African government used an interactive WhatsApp Chatbot to answer the public’s queries about COVID-19.[6] Meanwhile, the Rwanda government made investments in digital infrastructure.
In order to promote digital transformation, the African Union (AU) developed a strategic guide for countries in developing their comprehensive policy on new technologies, new business models, and digital economies. It also launched a COVID-19 ‘pass tool’ for simplifying passport verification of public health documentation process for travelers.[7]
At the same time, many startups developed innovative digital solutions, some notable examples of which are the following:
Around 75 percent of employers in South Africa[9] moved to accelerate the automation of tasks during the pandemic. Responding to the change in business environment, the World Economic Forum’s Regional Action Group for Africa[10] initiated fostering partnerships between private leaders and the public to fast-track low-cost digital solutions and simpler business models that can be easily adapted in the African market.
Local entrepreneurs, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa account for 80 percent of jobs[11] in the continent. African investors and multinationals invested in these small businesses to keep the local economy afloat and create new markets and reduce the cost of capital.
Like other sectors, education was also massively affected by the pandemic. Primary, secondary and higher education sectors faced different consequences. Educators had no choice but to initiate ‘blended learning’ using different technologies to bring reform and innovation in education. Immediately as the lockdowns began, Ubongo, Africa’s producer of kids’ edutainment, and Eneza, an SMS-based interactive learning app, garnered over one million monthly users.[12]
The next section of this brief explores in greater detail, the adoption of digital technologies in specific sectors of healthcare and wellness, education, and local businesses.
Sectoral Case Studies
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the longstanding fragilities in healthcare systems in Africa, including the gaps in personnel, infrastructure, supplies, equipment, and health data monitoring. At the same time, the pandemic also accelerated new digital innovations in healthcare delivery, while witnessing an increase in the ability to assist patients as virtual healthcare systems became a reality. Healthcare professionals and officials adopted a variety of low-cost technologies primarily for contact-tracing, tracking positive patients, disseminating information, as well as watching other related health issues such as mental health.
Table 1. Key Tech Innovations in Select African Countries
| Technologies | Countries |
| Electronic Pass | Sierra Leone, Ethiopia |
| Internet-based payments | Sierra Leone, Ethiopia |
| Contactless soap dispensers | Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal and Uganda |
| Solar-powered handwashing sinks | Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal and Uganda |
| SMS and Caller Ringtones | Guinea |
| Tracking people on public transport | Kenya |
| COVID-19 Tracking application | Morocco |
| COVID-19 chatbot | Rwanda |
Source: Author’s own, using various open sources.
Ethiopia and Sierra Leone used internet payment systems and electronic passes to control the movement of people and enforce physical distancing. Guinea initiated SMS messaging services in vernacular languages for broadcasting COVID-19-related messages.
FabLab, an innovation hub in the Kenyan port city of Kisumu, developed an application called Msafari[13] to track passengers on public transport. Similarly, the COVID-19 tracking application, Wiqaytna in Morocco used GPS and Bluetooth technology for tracking people on public transport.[14] Mbaza, a chatbot service in Rwanda,[15] provided access to COVID-19-related information using any mobile phone at any time, allowing people to raise their concerns and provide the government with information on the ground. It has an estimated average of 15,000 daily users.[16]
From a WhatsApp chatbot to a self-diagnosis tool, Africans devised mobile tech solutions to contain the spread of the virus. Besides providing day-to-day health information services, a number of innovative techniques involving robots and mobile phones were used for the clinical management of patients. For example, to minimise contact between health workers and COVID-19 patients, robots were deployed in healthcare settings in Rwanda and Tunisia to perform simple tasks like taking temperature, monitoring vital statistics, and delivering food and medicine.[17],[18],[19] Engineering students in Senegal designed a robot, Dr. Car,[20] to measure the temperature and blood pressure of infected patients at hospitals, thus reducing the risk of direct exposure to healthcare workers. The robotic car is guided by a camera and controlled via an app, and allows doctors to communicate with patients during treatment. It is especially useful in remote areas.[21] In Rwanda, a digital-first solution was developed to help COVID-19 patients care for themselves at home, thus avoiding the overcrowding of hospitals.[22] In Morocco, the Ministry of Health introduced a platform for healthcare professionals to exchange information on the virus.
Table 2. Chatbots for Healthcare
| Chatbot name | Country | Reach | Features |
| RBC Mbaza | Rwanda | 580,000 with an average number of 15,000[23] | Provides information on COVID-19 situation, lockdown restrictions and changed regulations. It can be accessed without internet connection and through mobile phone messages. Available in English, French and local Kinyarwanda. |
| COVID-19 Triage Tool[24] | Nigeria | 380,000 users since 2019 | Allows users to self-assess their COVID-19 risk category based on symptoms. Gives access to medical advice and information on nearby healthcare facilities |
| Praekelt.org[25] | South Africa | 20 million users | Answers common queries about COVID-19 |
The rising pace of digital innovations also increased threats to digital health ecosystem as numerous digital solutions are competing with each other. Most of these solutions are deployed to measure specific needs. Without a systematic approach to integration, national digital infrastructures were not ready to support real-time data transfer. Moreover, without having consistency in data entry and following coding protocols, the data quality was compromised, impacting surveillance mechanisms. These siloed solutions also led to increased burden on the healthcare workforce for entering data[26] on every application. The duplicated efforts introduced systemic confusion, data entry errors and staff burnout, and impacted overall service delivery.[27]
COVID-19 left 40 percent of primary and secondary children out of schools in Africa, according to UNICEF.[28] Schools in Africa closed early as part of the strategy to halt the spread of the virus. Indeed, Kenya declared 2020 a “lost year” for primary and secondary students, and innovation in the education sector was never as important as during the pandemic.
The rapid demands of the pandemic gave education institutions, teachers, students and their families, little time to conduct any cohesive planning for continuing to provide education as schools shut their doors. Students took to digital learning platforms to keep up with their education. In Cameroon, young entrepreneur, Angele Messa launched a distance learning platform, EduClick for students unable to access education due to the stresses of the pandemic, or owing to poverty that predated COVID-19. Similarly, the Kisomo SmartLearn app in Tanzania provided digital education in the vernacular.
Millions of students turned to TV educational shows, too. The average number of children who used EdTech platforms increased by as much as 97 percent from the time of the first lockdowns. More than 60 EdTech products are primarily targeted at children, with 19 million regular users out of 450 million being children 14 years or younger across all countries in the continent. Over 17 million children comprise the audience of TV shows produced by Ubongo, Africa’s leading producer of edutainment.
Students in South Africa switched to blended learning format, including with access to online, radio and TV education-based resources. In Tanzania, teachers and students are using Shule Direct, an online learning platform for continuing their classes. This platform is serving over 2 million students and 23,000 teachers across the country. Telecommunications service providers offered free access to this online platform during the COVID-19 crisis from 2020 to 2021. Similarly, Eneza Education offered quality content to 380,000 students per month in primary and secondary schools via SMS or USSD with a daily, weekly, or monthly subscription in Kenya, Ghana and Ivory Coast.
E-commerce in Africa experienced exponential growth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The e-commerce market expanded two-fold from 2020 to 2021.[29]
The volume of transactions on the pan-Africa e-commerce platform, Jumia, also increased from 3.1 million to 4.7 million in the first six months of 2020.[30] Launched in April 2020, Flutterwave offered digital payment services to small businesses and by November 2021, it had served over 30,000 small businesses.[31] Citizens in Kenya ordered grocery and food items online on Twiga Foods, an agrotech startup.[32] Agrotech platform, FarmCrowdy, allowed people to make investments in small, local farms and share the profits and collect produce from a network of over 25,000 farmers.[33] E-commerce solutions in Mauritius saw an increase in users within the first two weeks of the lockdown in March 2020.[34]
The use of digital platforms among informal entrepreneurs also increased tremendously, compared to earlier when only 10 percent of informal businesses had access to the internet, and barely one in four informal entrepreneurs used the internet to search for suppliers. Around 30 percent of informal microenterprises in Ghana used online services to sell their products.
Both formal and informal businesses that had adopted digital technology prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 showed greater levels of productivity, output, profits, employment, and wages.[35] Moreover, firms that were using smartphones, digital transactions and digital management tools (including accounting and inventory control/point-of-sale software), saw their productivity increase in significant terms. Informal businesses in Senegal using inventory control/POS software have seen 1.6 times sales to that of non-users, while employment firms are using digital tools to recruit more than twice the number of employees[36] compared to non-users. Moreover, the average wage of firms using digital transactions was 1.5 to 2.4 times higher than that of non-users.[37] Agrotech startup, AgroCenta in Ghana connects 10,000 farmers with buyers, allowing farmers to secure a higher price for their produce. Around 22 percent of firms in Sub-Saharan Africa reported that they had begun to use, or increased the use of the internet, social media and digital platforms for their services and financial transactions.[38]
Key Challenges
The previous sections of this brief demonstrated the crucial role played by technological innovations in helping the people of Africa tide over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, however, crucial challenges impede the optimisation of the potential benefits of digitalisation.
An enduring digital divide has left behind many populations across Africa in the digital shift that was fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The gaps are caused by various factors, including uneven access to digital technology, socio-economic disparities, weak ICT infrastructure, and lack of digital literacy.
In education, for example, while African governments initiated innovative digital solutions to facilitate distance learning, some 89 percent of learners across Sub-Saharan Africa do not have household computers and 82 percent lack internet access.[39] The challenge is even more massive for children whose families live in poverty and those in conflict zones.[40]
A 2022 study observed that approximately 747 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have a mobile connection, of whom 250 million use smartphones.[41] The smartphone connections in SSA are set to double by 2025. However, the pace of internet adoption is lagging in the continent behind the rest of the world due to gaps in infrastructure, affordability of devices and data, consumer skills and readiness, as well as the availability of locally relevant content.
The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) notes that only 10 out of the 45 countries in Africa they tracked in 2019 can afford internet connectivity—defined as 1GB of mobile prepaid data costing 2 percent or less of the average monthly income.[42] Having weak ICT infrastructure is another issue that impedes digital adoption. According to Internet World Stats, at the end of 2019, Africa had an internet penetration rate of 39.3 percent. The infrastructural challenge requires significant investments and the adoption of policies to improve the status quo.
The rapid digital shift spurred by the pandemic in early 2020 has increased the risks of cyber-crime. During the first three months of the pandemic alone, cyberattacks increased by 33 percent.[43] Over 60,000 fake COVID-19 websites were designed across the continent and were used to steal personal information from users. A security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, KnowBe4 reported around 600-percent increase in phishing email attacks during the first quarter of the pandemic.[44] Compounding the challenge was that higher education institutions across the continent did not have adequate budgets to spend on IT infrastructure and data protection.
The disruption in the work order also brought up challenges related to secure connections as employees were barely working from centralised and more secure local area network (LAN). According to the Liquid Intelligent Technologies report, digital threats, including hacking, data breaches, ransomware and botnets in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe increased due to the rapid uptake of digital platforms to boost efficiency. Nearly 80 percent of South African companies experienced a spike in cyber threats.[45] Trend Micro, a Japanese cyber software company, reported that the African continent witnessed 679 million threat detections on email, 8.2 million on files, and 14.3 million on the web, from January 2020 to February 2021.[46]
Figure 1. Cyber Threats, Africa (May 2021)
Cybercrime is estimated to have cost the South Africa economy US$ 570 million in 2021; the figure is US$500 million for Nigeria, and US$ 36 million for Kenya[48]
Hackers used around 2,000 mobile SIM cards to gain access to systems and hack information from Uganda’s telecommunications and banking sectors; an estimated US$ 3.2 million was stolen. According to a survey of 21 banks in West Africa and Central Africa, 85 percent of their customers faced a cyber-attack at least once in 2020.[49]
Figure 2. Cyber-attacks on Banks, West Africa and Central Africa (2020)
Indeed, cyber-security is a huge concern for the African continent and capacities need to be developed in response. The Centre for the Study of the Economics of Africa (CSEA)[50] has made specific recommendations regarding policy measures that can improve cyber-security across the continent. These include building up cyber security capabilities and technologies to detect and mitigate cybercrime; legislating efficient procedures for investigating and prosecuting cybercrime; strengthening public and private partnerships to encourage the sharing of intelligence on potential threats; and enhancing inter-state cooperation to ensure a united voice when negotiating over multilateral cyber security standards.
Policy Measures Undertaken During COVID-19
Governments in African countries exerted efforts to swiftly respond to the pandemic in all sectors, including public healthcare and education. They implemented a range of fiscal and monetary policies, as well as those for public health, to cushion the adverse impacts of the crisis.
One of them was the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI),[1] which potentially benefitted countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. DSSI safeguarded the lives and livelihoods of the 709 million people living in the sub-region in 2020.[51] According to the World Bank, DSSI-eligible countries in Sub-African saved up to US$ 5.1 billion during the period May – December 2021 alone.[52]
Innovative new public-private partnerships and policies around education and reskilling were also adopted. For example, online learning platform, Coursera, launched a Workforce Recovery initiative to provide unemployed workers access to online learning tools. Meanwhile, the EDACY Digital Skills for Public Services Employees programme provided digital skills to civil servants in Ethiopia and Rwanda to help them connect with their citizens.[53]
Governments in the SSA region and various monetary authorities encouraged financial service providers and bank customers to use digital payment platforms to mitigate the risk of person-to-person contact. Banks adopted virtual loan and mortgage requests and payments as well as digital onboarding for new account holders. Aligning with international practice, central banks in various countries within the region embraced an expansionary monetary policy stance. Uganda, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda reduced or eliminated mobile money transfer fees and raised transaction size limits.[54]
In South Africa, meanwhile, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) was the first to offer a temporary waiver of spectrum fee payments,[55] and then issuing the incumbent licensees with additional spectrum. Regulators in Ghana,[56] Zambia,[57] Zimbabwe,[58] the DRC, and Morocco implemented similar measures. The supply-side intervention has been welcomed by the global GSM Association as a good COVID-19 regulatory practice.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 crisis has spurred the pace of digital adoption in Africa. However, the digital economy in the continent is still embryonic, and requires an ‘incubation policy approach’ to reach maturity. Doing so can help realise the development potential of e-commerce, including for financial inclusion, transportation, education, and healthcare accessibility.
The adoption of digital platforms and channels by buyers and consumers is speeding up the continuing metamorphosis of demand. The workforce is changing, and there is a pressing need to reskill in order to fill positions like those for digital marketers, who are now in short supply. Additionally, in order for industries to be resilient in the face of supply chain disruptions, they must use automation and other ICT tools such as digital health and telecare.
To be sure, governments in Africa have adopted specific policy measures that enabled the use of tech in pandemic response. Policymakers must continue in their efforts to create a framework that will support technological growth and innovation across the continent.
Ritu Srivastava has over 16 years of experience in the field of development, with an emphasis on the ICT domain and the use of digital technology for the sustainable development of marginalised groups and poor communities.
Endnotes
[1] The Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) (that allows low-income countries (LICs) to temporarily suspend their debt payments) and Common Framework for Treatments beyond the DSSI (an instrument for dealing with sovereign debt vulnerabilities) are specifically debt standstills and relief in response to the COVID-19 shock.
[1] Angus Morgan Kathage, “Understanding the informal economy in African cities: Recent evidence from Greater Kampala,” March 14, 2018, blogs.worldbank.org/team/angus-morgan-kathage.
[2] J.M. Maeda, J.N. Nkengasong, “The Puzzle of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa,” Science 371 (6524) (2021) 27–28
[3] World Health Organization, “COVID-19 Spurs Health Innovation in Africa”.
[4] World Bank, “Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 in Kenya”.
[5] UN, “Africa Renewal, Post-COVID-19: A Chance to Leapfrog Africa’s Development Through Digitalization”.
[6] Quartz, “WHO is Raising Coronavirus Awareness Globally Using a WhatsApp Bot Developed in South Africa”.
[8] Wakandi, “COVID-19 Fuelling Digital Transformation in Africa”.
[9] We Forum, “How Africa’s Digital Acceleration Can Create Jobs in a Post-COVID-19 World”.
[10] World Economic Forum, “Accelerating Africa’s Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Agenda”.
[11] CSIS, “Supporting Small and Medium Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa through Blended Finance”.
[12] Ubongo, “Edutaining Millions of Students in the Largest Classroom in Africa”.
[13] Kuwait Times, “Cabinet Reviews Population Plan; Remittance Tax Urged”.
[15] European Commission, “Mbaza: The Chatbot Giving Access to COVID-19 Information Throughout Rwanda”.
[16] European Commission, “Mbaza: The Chatbot Giving Access to COVID-19 Information Throughout Rwanda”
[17] CNN, “Rwanda Has Enlisted Anti-Epidemic Robots in its Fight Against Coronavirus,” May 25, 2020.
[18] “Tunisia: Intelligent Robot Jasmin to Help Fight COVID-19 in Tunisia,” allAfrica, July 10, 2020.
[19] “Robot Helps Tunisia Medics Avoid Infection From Virus Patients,” France24, May 2, 2020, https://www.france24.com/en/20200502-robot-helps-tunisia-medics-avoid-infection-from-virus-patients
[20] Aljazeera, “Senegalese Engineering Students Fight Coronavirus With Inventions,” https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/5/13/senegalese-engineering-students-fight-coronavirus-with-inventions
[21] “Senegal’s Engineering Students Design Machines to Fight Covid-19,” France24. May 13, 2020, https://www.france24.com/en/20200513-senegal-s-engineering-students-design-machines-to-fight-covid-19
[22] “Coronavirus and Africa: In Rwanda, Technology to the Rescue,” Institut Montaigne, https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/blog/coronavirus-and-africa-rwanda-technology-rescue
[23] European Commission, “Mbaza: The Chatbot Giving Access to COVID-19 Information Throughout Rwanda”
[24] UN, “Africa Renewal: Nigerian Digital Healthcare Startup Helps Triage COVID-19 Cases,” https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/june-2020/coronavirus/nigerian-digital-healthcare-startup-helps-triage-covid-19-cases
[25] Bizcommunity, “The Covid-19 Chatbot That Saved Lives,” https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/206885.html#
[26] Gleiss A. Lewandowski, “Removing Barriers for Digital Health Through Organizing Ambidexterity in Hospitals,” Public Health (2022) 30:21–35. 10.1007/s10389-021-01532-y
[27] Lewandowski, “Removing Barriers for Digital Health Through Organizing Ambidexterity in Hospitals”
[28] UNICEF, “40 per cent of Children in Eastern and Southern Africa Are Not in School”.
[29] UN, “Covid-19 and Global Review”.
[30] TechCrunch, “The E-commerce Boom is Still Afoot in Africa, Jumia’s Earnings Indicate”.
[31] Fluetterwave, “Flutterwave Launches Market, a New E-commerce Service to Scale SME Growth”.
[32] TechCrunch, “The E-commerce Boom is Still Afoot in Africa, Jumia’s Earnings Indicate”
[33] TechCrunch, “Farmcrowdy Raises $1M Round to Bring Nigerian Farmers Online and to Market”.
[34] Mauritius Fintech, “How COVID-19 is Transforming the E-commerce Landscape in Africa and Mauritius”.
[35] Evidence from 82 developing countries (including 27 in Sub-Saharan African) shows that firms adopting digital solutions (use of email and a website) have higher levels of employment and productivity (Cusolito, Lederman, and Peña 2020). For instance, the level of employment is 21 percent higher among firms that have adopted email or a website—an impact that is comparable to the increase in employment across firms having access to external markets (30 percent). Additionally, the authors find that productivity can be labor augmenting in sectors like garments and fabricated metals
[36] These differences control for a wide array of drivers of employment, including firm characteristics (Atiyas and Dutz 2021)
[37] World Bank, “COVID-19 and the Future of Work in Africa: Emerging Trends in Digital Technology”.
[38] The World Bank, “COVID-19 and the Future of Work in Africa: Emerging Trends in Digital Technology”
[39] UNESCO, “Startling Digital Divides in Distance Learning Emerge”.
[40] UNESCO, “Startling Digital Divides in Distance Learning Emerge”
[41] GSMA, “The Mobile Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
[42] A4AI, Affordability Report 2020.
[43] University World News, “COVID-19 Brings New Cyber-Security Threats to Universities”.
[44] University World News, “COVID-19 Brings New Cyber-Security Threats to Universities”.
[45] News CN, “African Businesses’ Vulnerability to Cyber attacks Worsened by Pandemic: Report”.
[46] Investmentmonitor, “Africa Faces Huge Cybercrime Threat as the Pace of Digitalisation Increases”.
[47] Interpol, African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2021.
[48] Investmentmonitor, “Africa Faces Huge Cybercrime Threat as the Pace of Digitalisation Increases”
[49] The Africa Report, “Cybercrime: West African Banks are Under-protected”.
[50] CSEA, “Are African countries Doing Enough to Ensure Cybersecurity and Internet Safety”?
[51] Africa Pulse, “Covid-19 and the Future of Work in Africa: Emerging Trends in Digital Technology Adoption”.
[52] Africa Pulse, “Covid-19 and the Future of Work in Africa: Emerging Trends in Digital Technology Adoption”.
[53] Capital Ethiopia, “Ethiopia, EDACY SA to Launch Digital Skill Program for Public Servants”.
[54] UN Economic Commission for Africa, “Covid-19 Impact on E-Commerce: Africa”.
[55] TechCentral, “Icasa Grants 3-Month Spectrum Break to Operators,” March 30, 2020.
[56] P. Adepoju, “Ghana Expands Spectrum for MTN, Vodafone,” ITWeb, April 28, 2020.
[57] M. Malakata, “Zambia Releases Free Additional Spectrum,” ITWeb, May 27, 2020.
[58] P. Adepoju, “Zim Telcos Receive Additional Spectrum at No Charge,” ITWeb, May 15, 2020.
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Ritu Srivastava has over 16 years of experience in the field of development with an emphasis on the ICT domain and the use of digital ...
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