In recent weeks, high-level international governance conferences across Africa have cast light on the vital role digitalisation is set to play for the continent’s inclusive and sustainable development.
At the recent World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) “Harnessing the Benefits of Digital Trade” forum, for example, leading UN and government policymakers discussed the major opportunities that enhanced digital connectivity presents for African citizens and businesses. Participants equally highlighted the urgent need to expand digital infrastructure and reduce Internet costs to tackle the digital divide and ensure the socioeconomic benefits of Africa’s digital transformation are felt across all communities.
Moreover, as last month’s UN International Youth Day 2024 stressed, empowering Africa’s youth to actively shape the digital economy and fuel long-term progress will be essential in unlocking the Internet’s promise for the continent. Moving forward, this undertaking will require close collaboration between civil society, government and private sector innovators to address both the “hard” and “soft” barriers impeding Africa’s digital development.
Digital divide front and centre
While the digitalisation efforts driven by Google and other Big Tech giants over the past decade have achieved considerable progress in expanding Internet connectivity across the developing world, three billion people remain offline globally.
According to UNESCO, only 36% of Africa’s population had broadband Internet access in 2022, while significant and widening gender and urban-rural digital divides – in terms of both connectivity and skills – remain major obstacles to the continent’s inclusive economic transformation. Consequently, African countries remain the least integrated in the global digital economy–despite the significant connectivity growth in continent leaders such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
As the GSMA, a global industry association for mobile network operators, has rightly identified, the problem is not simply a matter of an uneven deployment of hard connectivity infrastructure, but a harder-to-fix “usage gap.” To address this gap, in which nearly 40% of the global population lives in areas covered by mobile broadband yet still have not accessed the Internet, the GSMA recently announced an ambitious, holistic plan.
Digital literacy, content relevance, safety concerns, and above all, affordability are the key digital barriers that the GSMA will tackle with its new initiative. Michuki Mwangi, a Kenya-based regional development manager at the Internet Society, has wisely noted how for many people, the “device is not the issue – it’s the value they get from the connectivity,” making it essential for digitalisation efforts to be firmly rooted in community-specific challenges and aspirations.
Empowerment via education and skills-building
Moreover, collaboration with leading private tech firms and open Internet-focused NGOs will be key in ensuring that connectivity delivers tangible socioeconomic benefits for new users and encourages young people’s active participation in policymaking discussions at the heart of the continent's digital growth.
Through the Larus Foundation, the philanthropic arm of his global IP solutions firm LARUS Limited, global tech entrepreneur and Internet governance activist Lu Heng and his team ardently support this mission. Founded with the aim to empower people across society to directly shape the policymaking process, Heng’s Larus Foundation provides Internet governance internships, training and workshops to achieve its ultimate goal of Universal Internet education.
Conscious of the key role new generations have to play in unlocking the long-term benefits of the Internet, from creating high-value jobs to connecting SMEs to accessing the limitless opportunities of the global digital economy, the Larus Foundation’s Fellowship Programme has trained over 1,000 young people from around the world in open governance principles. Equipped with these fundamentals, Lu Heng intends for participants to play leading roles in ensuring the Internet remains a democratic public good that serves citizens’ social and economic interests.
The Internet Society (ISOC) operates in a similar space, with regional development manager Michuki Mwangi highlighting the organisation’s “community-centred” approach to promoting inclusive Internet expansion. Sharing the Larus Foundation’s focus on empowering younger generations, ISOC’s Youth Ambassador Program gives young people from underserved communities the opportunity to learn from leading Internet experts and hone their technical and advocacy skills.
What’s more, ISOC provides community-level support services, from knowledge and training to initial funding, with Mwangi explaining that “we show them how to run it,” preparing community members to create local NGOs that provide Internet access and explain the wide-ranging benefits of digital access to other residents.
Managing critical digital infrastructure
Beyond social and educational factors tied to the “usage gap,” Africa certainly continues to face “hard” infrastructure barriers and digital resource shortages hindering its digital transformation.
In the latter category, IPv4 addresses’ increasing scarcity has disproportionately impacted underserved regions in Africa–a scarcity which is precisely why Lu Heng launched IP solutions provider Larus Limited in 2016, offering an innovative IP leasing model that has notably given SMEs and individuals in Africa affordable access to this essential Internet resource, connecting them to a world of new economic opportunities.
On the infrastructure front, Africa’s overreliance on subsea cables has shown its dangers in recent months. Like IPv4 addresses, the global subsea infrastructure network is overly centralised – accounting for roughly 99% of the world’s Internet traffic – underscoring the continent’s need for diversification and flexibility to ensure the long-term resilience of its digitalisation agenda. As Internet governance expert Dr. Jovan Kurbalija recently highlighted, Africa’s connectivity currently relies on a small number of coastal hubs, such as South Africa, Egypt and Kenya, leaving the continent vulnerable to sabotage and natural disasters.
Last spring, damage to subsea cables in western and southern Africa caused significant economic disruption, underlining structural network reliability issues that the continent must address to accelerate its digital drive sustainability. Looking ahead, Africa should strike new partnerships with development agencies and private sector leaders to increase investment in alternative digital infrastructure, with satellite broadband offering a particularly promising avenue.
Africa stands at a pivotal moment where digital transformation could unlock unprecedented socioeconomic progress. However, realising this potential requires more than infrastructure development—it demands a coordinated, cross-sector approach. Governments, private companies and civil society must come together to bridge the digital divide, making Internet access both widespread and affordable. By leveraging the collective expertise and resources of these stakeholders, Africa can empower its youth, fuel innovation and create an inclusive digital ecosystem that fosters growth and tackles its most pressing challenges.
