African regulators should move boldly to grow global digital economy
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Africa’s role in the development of the global digital economy requires bold decisions if the continent is to influence global affairs, the global economy and the global imagination. This was the vision of economic change outlined in The Economist’s May special report on “The African Century”.
The continent should drive its regulators to become enablers and move to change the laws to allow for the future digital economy, based on aspects such as mobility in vehicles, drones, smart grids, and cloud computing.
The critical elements required to ensure the digital revolution is transformational are:
The regulatory infrastructure must keep pace with technology;Digital transformation must close the historic, and widening, gender gap; andPhysical infrastructure must be in place.
The regulatory infrastructure is fragmented — as in SA — or nonexistent, as it is across most of the continent, though there are moves to tackle this. Regulatory frameworks for governance and regulation of technology businesses must focus on facilitating adoption (including licensing and registration) and operate at a national and continental level. It should also balance public security concerns with the need to encourage innovation, economic development and youth entrepreneurship.
There is an enormous digital divide. About half of the world’s population have no access to the internet, and most of those are women in developing countries. The future is online, but more than 250-million fewer women than men have access to the internet, a critical requirement for social and economic participation, and so are excluded.
This digital divide refers not only to the unequal access to information communication technologies (ICTs) but also the use of ICTs by those on the socioeconomic margins. The accessibility, availability and affordability of everything from mobile phones to payphones and the internet — key components of digital transformation — depend on government policy and regulatory environments.
Closed sets
A World Wide Web Foundation report, “Is Open Data Working for Women in Africa?”, revealed “a closed data culture in Africa”, legislation and practices that are not gender-responsive, and gender equality legislation that fails to deal with such inequalities.
The report claims sex-segregated data sets on budget, health and crime are unavailable and that in Sub-Saharan Africa 373 out of 375 data sets are closed. Such data sets are needed to support the advocacy objectives of women.
The AU report “Drones on the Horizon: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture” calls for agritech to transform farming across the continent, yet only ...
The continent should drive its regulators to become enablers and move to change the laws to allow for the future digital economy, based on aspects such as mobility in vehicles, drones, smart grids, and cloud computing.
The critical elements required to ensure the digital revolution is transformational are:
The regulatory infrastructure must keep pace with technology;Digital transformation must close the historic, and widening, gender gap; andPhysical infrastructure must be in place.
The regulatory infrastructure is fragmented — as in SA — or nonexistent, as it is across most of the continent, though there are moves to tackle this. Regulatory frameworks for governance and regulation of technology businesses must focus on facilitating adoption (including licensing and registration) and operate at a national and continental level. It should also balance public security concerns with the need to encourage innovation, economic development and youth entrepreneurship.
There is an enormous digital divide. About half of the world’s population have no access to the internet, and most of those are women in developing countries. The future is online, but more than 250-million fewer women than men have access to the internet, a critical requirement for social and economic participation, and so are excluded.
This digital divide refers not only to the unequal access to information communication technologies (ICTs) but also the use of ICTs by those on the socioeconomic margins. The accessibility, availability and affordability of everything from mobile phones to payphones and the internet — key components of digital transformation — depend on government policy and regulatory environments.
Closed sets
A World Wide Web Foundation report, “Is Open Data Working for Women in Africa?”, revealed “a closed data culture in Africa”, legislation and practices that are not gender-responsive, and gender equality legislation that fails to deal with such inequalities.
The report claims sex-segregated data sets on budget, health and crime are unavailable and that in Sub-Saharan Africa 373 out of 375 data sets are closed. Such data sets are needed to support the advocacy objectives of women.
The AU report “Drones on the Horizon: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture” calls for agritech to transform farming across the continent, yet only ...