Mobile Monday Uganda: The Impact of Internet in Africa: The Good, Bad, and Unfulfilled Potential

As a part of the 2nd annual Google for Entrepreneurs Week, Google Uganda, in partnership with Mobile Monday and GBG Kampala, are excited to host Dalberg Global Development Advisors to present findings of their 2013 study and report on the impact of the internet in Africa. The keynote will be titled “The Impact of the Internet in Africa: The good, the bad, and the unfulfilled potential.”

This report describes the role of the Internet on the socioeconomic development of Sub-Saharan Africa and its potential going forward. It builds atop a body of research that has sought to identify and measure the economic benefits of the Internet and broadband. These previous reports, most of which have found a positive relationship between economic development and the Internet, provide helpful starting points, because they have aggregated a wealth of data from an array of countries across the globe. However, previous research has tended to focus on macro-level data, which has limited ability to provide actionable recommendations for policymakers. Further, available studies typically lack detailed analyses of the social and political value of the Internet, especially across Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, most reports have thus far focused on developed economies, rather than low-income countries, or have defined “economic development” narrowly, by focusing on the contributions to gross domestic profit (GDP) by traditional large, commercial industries.

In contrast, this report defines the scope of economic benefits broadly, including opportunities to drive inclusive growth and to address social and inequality goals. Although it uses a macro-economic analysis to review the underlying enabling conditions, it relies heavily on a broad based survey of African businesses. It aims to understand the opportunities the Internet has brought these small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the barriers business owners face as they try to tap opportunities, and the Internet’s potential future impact on them. The report includes a micro-level impact analysis of the Internet’s current and potential impact on socio economic development across seven sectors.