Digitalization and digital skills gaps in Africa: An empirical profile

Commissioned by the African Growth Initiative (AGI) at the Brookings Institution, the report: “Digitalization and digital skills gaps in Africa: An empirical profile” was published in May 2023.

This research was undertaken by Prof. Haroon Bhorat with Mr Zaakhir Asmal, Ms Jabulile Monnakgotla and Mr Chris Rooney, and Prof Landry Signé of the AGI. Their paper attempts to describe and better crystallize Africa’s participation in the digital revolution sweeping across the world economy today. The empirical results from the descriptive evidence suggest that at least in terms of some digital infrastructure and digital finance indicators—such as mobile phone subscriptions and bank accounts—the sample of African economies observed have shown some steady progress and catch-up with the average G20 economies. However it is also clear that across many, if not the majority of the five dimensions of digitalization—African economies lag behind the G20 significantly.

When moving from the descriptive statistics to those derived from their composite A-F Digitalization Gap Index or its sub-index representations, the results are more stark, and suggest on the Digitalization Gap Headcount Index measure for example, that over 90% of all African economies in the sample remain below the G20 mean in the aggregate. They conclude with a guide in terms of how digital skills can be more accurately measured using both a country’s labour force survey and the code-based task measures of the O*NET listings, which remains a key approach in trying to be more exact in tracking both the demand for and supply of digital skills in the African context.

On May 31, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative, in partnership with the DPRU, hosted a virtual discussion on the findings from the report. The discussion highlighted the broad analytical implications of the report for Africa, and then focused on the specific case study of South Africa.

The online event featured a high-level panel of leading experts and academics, who also offered insights and recommendations on policy pathways for bridging Africa’s digital skills gap to compete in an increasingly interconnected global economy.  As part of the discussion, the panelists sought to answer the following questions:

• What is the level of digitization in Africa?
• To what extent is the level of digitization in Africa ahead or behind that of other regions?
• How can we empirically anchor or measure digital skills demand, supply and the skills gap?

After the program, panelists took audience questions. Viewers submitted questions for the virtual panel by emailing events@brookings.edu and via Twitter @BrookingsGlobal by using #DigitalSkillsAfrica.