COVID-19 Recovery
Why Technology Needs to Be Harnessed for Africa to Recover from the Pandemic
Sourced from Redbubble and iStock. Despite the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on African economies, there is no doubt that the continent has the potential to recover given the fact that with a large youth population it promises to be a major consumption market in the years ahead with significant capacity for growth. However, it urgently needs to achieve faster economic growth in order to create jobs, grow its export revenue and become more globally competitive. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which came into effect earlier this year after being delayed in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, aims to promote trade on the continent by creating the largest free trade area globally. This agreement plans to remove some of the main obstacles to ...
4 Ways Digitisation Can Unlock Africa’s Recovery from COVID-19
Four steps to achieve a digital society for all Africans and avoid the stalling of African digitisation: 1. Bridging the digital divide Broad-based digitisation, especially for those people at the bottom of the pyramid, is an effective measure to ignite and sustain economic growth, and it starts with ensuring access to digital infrastructure for all. A study by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) found that expanding mobile broadband penetration by just 10% in Africa would equate to an increase of 2.5% in GDP per capita. Yet, traditional models for investing in digital infrastructure do not stack up in many rural or remote areas, due to a combination of high deployment costs, regulatory barriers and poor returns on capital. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_101.td-a-rec-img{ text-align:...
