Entertaining Africans: Creative Innovation in the (Internet) Television Space

In the growing scholarly literature on internet television, Africa is mentioned tangentially, if at all. This article attempts to rectify this by offering one of the first studies of Africa-based and Africa-focused internet television and video on demand (VOD) for domestic and diasporan African audiences. It begins by giving a brief overview of screen and television infrastructure across Africa before moving on to describe the landscape of internet television in Africa, focusing on six core competitive factors: content, internet connectivity, data costs, payment options, security, and multimedia convergence. Finally, it identifies and briefly analyzes the potentially most popular Africa-based and Africa-focused internet television and VOD platforms. The article draws on original interviews conducted with key players at some of the most important Africa-based and African-focused internet television and VOD platforms and with other African media scholars and filmmakers who have expertise in different regions of the continent (and specifically Senegal, Ethiopia, Angola, Rwanda, and Kenya)

Digital Africa: How Big Tech and African Startups Are Reshaping the Continent

Over the past two decades, Africa has become increasingly connected as more and more Africans gained access to the internet and mobile phones. Building on this enhanced connectivity, a new wave of African startups has emerged, tackling some of the continent's biggest challenges with "homemade" digital technologies. There are growing signs that these new technologies could provide a leapfrogging opportunity for Africa. Africa has seen massive improvements in internet access and mobile phone adoption, due to investments in the continent's digital infrastructure, particularly mobile broadband networks. At the same time, there are significant connectivity gaps between Africa and the rest of the world as well as between and within African countries. These may widen as Africa's digital infrastructure faces capacity pressures from a rapidly expanding internet user base. Tech giants, primarily from the United States, have recognised a business opportunity in Africa's existing connectivity gaps and have begun investing heavily in subsea data cables, data centres, and technology hubs. It is critical that these investments bridge Africa's connectivity gaps - a growing body of evidence shows the wide-ranging positive socio-economic impacts of improved internet and mobile phone access. Africa's enhanced connectivity has led to the emergence of a new wave of growth-oriented technology startups, building innovative and "homemade" digital technologies for widespread use. Digital platforms in particular are increasingly disrupting Africa's major, mostly informal service, retail, and agricultural sectors. Anecdotal reports suggest that digital technologies from African startups can be transformative for individuals, businesses, and farms, but there is very little systematic empirical evidence on their local impacts. Such evidence is urgently needed to harness their full potential for inclusive economic development in Africa. As Africa's digitalisation accelerates, African governments must develop policies that simultaneously harness the benefits of new technologies and ensure that lagging countries and segments of society do not fall further behind. Policies should incentivise private investment in Africa's digital infrastructure and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, while preventing unregulated new technologies from harming consumers. In addition, digital skills need to be strengthened to prepare African countries for the coming digital century

The Internet and Tourism in Rwanda: Value Chains and Networks of Connectivity-Based Enterprises in Rwanda

East Africa was the world’s last major region without submarine fibre-optic broadband internet access, and until the summer of 2009 had been forced to rely on slow and costly satellite connections for access. However, the region has recently been connected via fibre-optic cable – in theory, allowing much greater speeds at much lower prices. This rapid transformation in the region’s connectivity has prompted politicians, journalists, academics, and citizens to speak of an economic revolution fuelled by information and communication technologies (ICTs) happening on the continent. While some research has been conducted into the impacts of ICTs on economic processes and practices, there remains surprisingly little research into changing connectivity in East Africa. Here the authors summarise research examining the effects of this changing connectivity in the Rwandan tourism sector. We seek to understand what impacts changing connectivity is having, who benefits and who doesn’t

NGOS and Internet Use in Uganda

Information technology (IT) research has ignored examining\ud the impact of the Internet on unconnected stakeholder communities in the South. This research, which investigates how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with connectivity are utilising the Internet for their daily operations, and how they are able to acquire and disseminate information from the Internet to their stakeholders, hopes to correct such injustices. The research was undertaken over an eight-week period in early 1998 in Uganda, East Africa. The survey involved representatives of 33 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) responding to seven openended questions related to their organisations’ use of the Internet, and their information communication patterns. The paper begins with a brief background on Uganda and its telecommunications environment, including a summary of the seven Internet Service Providers (ISPs) currently operating in the country. The survey questions are identified, and the responses are organised into thematic categories which became apparent during the course of the study. The term “Internet” is used to refer to email-only services, as well as World Wide Web services. The research found that NGOs report benefiting from their use of the Internet through reduced transmission costs, access to new and relevant information, and greater contact with their own field sites and partner organisations. NGO representatives’ responses also indicate that the dissemination of Internet-acquired information is occurring with their stakeholders, regardless whether those stakeholders have connectivity or not. The majority of NGOs surveyed (70%) have only one computer with Internet connectivity within their offices; this presents challenges and restrictions in terms of the frequency with which the Internet can be accessed. A mere 5% of the NGOs with field sites reported that those sites were connected with either email or Internet; 33% reported having field sites without any means of direct voice or data transmission systems. The\ud majority of NGOs with World Wide Web service reported using the systems for accessing and researching documents relevant to their work, but 32% of those organisations reported that they either seldom or never used the Internet that was available to them. Most NGOs reported that they used the email to communicate with international partners; use of the\ud Internet for local communications is low. Respondents reported that email was a very convenient mode of communications, effective in transmitting documents at lower costs than other technologies. Obtaining access to the\ud computers, and the sending and receiving of attached documents proved the most problematic issues for respondents; the latter issue raises questions about the quality of training these organisations are receiving\ud from their ISPs. The paper concludes with lessons learned from the research, and recommends areas for more detailed study

Global Diffusion of the Internet XI: Internet Diffusion and Its Determinants in South Africa: The First Decade of Democracy (1994 - 2004) and Beyond

South Africa has one of the most sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures in Africa, and was one of the early adopters of the Internet on the continent. This paper describes a longitudinal analysis of Internet diffusion in South Africa over the period 1994 to 2004 by making use of the Global Diffusion of the Internet (GDI) framework. It also analyses the determinants of further diffusion. The analysis shows that in 2004, at the end of its first decade of democracy, less than 10 percent of the population accessed the Internet despite its relatively wide geographic dispersion. Across the education, commercial, health, and public sectors the Internet had been largely embraced, with potential for further diffusion. The underlying national Internet connectivity infrastructure was well established. Strong competition existed between Internet service providers despite a monopoly on fixed-line telecommunications provision for much of the period. The Internet was being used for sophisticated applications in several sectors. The overall analysis reflected South Africa\u27s reputation as having one of the most developed ICT sectors in Africa. The findings are perhaps also a reflection of its status as a middle-income developing country. After major growth in the 1990s, from 2000 to 2004 growth declined significantly. Reasons identified included the monopoly telecommunications environment over much of the period, restrictive regulation, delayed implementation of policies, and the socio-economic divide in the nation. Telecommunications policy directives announced at the end of 2004 helped in reversing the trend of stagnation that had set in

The Impact of broadband Internet on labour productivity in African countries

 This study investigates the impact of broadband Internet on labour productivity in Africa, focusing on 34 countries. The research is estimated using a quantitative approach, by utilizing a fixed-effect panel regression model to analyze panel data obtained from the World Bank Indicator, from the period 2005 to 2020. The fixed-effect approach controls for country-specific heterogeneity and time-invariant unobserved factors, to produce more reliable estimates and enhance the robustness of the findings. The findings show compelling evidence of a positive and significant effect of broadband Internet on labour productivity in African countries. The result suggests a 0.11 percent increase in the logarithm of labour productivity for each percent increase in broadband across the countries. Broadband Internet accessibility enhances workers’ access to information and increases knowledge acquisition, improves workers’ collaboration and cohesiveness notwithstanding geographical barriers, and stimulates e-commerce opportunities. The findings of this study emphasize the significance of promoting broadband connectivity as an agent of economic growth, and for continued investment in broadband Internet infrastructure in Africa. Institutions, policymakers and stakeholders should prioritize strategies aimed at expanding broadband accessibility and affordability, to further harness the gains in labour productivity

THE IMPACT OF BROADBAND INTERNET ON LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES.

This study investigates the impact of broadband Internet on labour productivity in Africa, focusing on 34 countries. The research is estimated using a quantitative approach, by utilizing a fixed-effect panel regression model to analyze panel data obtained from the World Bank Indicator, from the period 2005 to 2020. The fixed-effect approach controls for country-specific heterogeneity and time-invariant unobserved factors, to produce more reliable estimates and enhance the robustness of the findings. The findings show compelling evidence of a positive and significant effect of broadband Internet on labour productivity in African countries. The result suggests a 0.11 percent increase in the logarithm of labour productivity for each percent increase in broadband across the countries. Broadband Internet accessibility enhances workers’ access to information and increases knowledge acquisition, improves workers’ collaboration and cohesiveness notwithstanding geographical barriers, and stimulates e-commerce opportunities. The findings of this study emphasize the significance of promoting broadband connectivity as an agent of economic growth, and for continued investment in broadband Internet infrastructure in Africa. Institutions, policymakers and stakeholders should prioritize strategies aimed at expanding broadband accessibility and affordability, to further harness the gains in labour productivity

Meeting the information challenge: exploring partnerships with Africa

Africa suffers from the disadvantages of marginality within the global technical system and a legacy of externally driven infrastructure. Developments in information and communication technologies now offer the chance to redress these but the technologies require skills and capacities which are scarce. The technologies themselves can be used to leverage existing resources so that the necessary skills can be developed. However this process needs to take account of African priorities and requirements if the current inequitable situation is not to be reproduced in a new global infrastructure. The key to this is a balance between external partnership and internal collaboration. The African diaspora offers a means of moderating such relationships

Economic barriers to development : cost of access to internet infrastructure

The Internet is increasingly viewed as an "indispensable" resource for general development and economic growth (UNDP 1999). Its adoption by governments, organizations and individuals has resulted in the shrinking of spatial and temporal distances between different regions of the world, and has greatly facilitated the "free" and quick exchange of information. Such constrictions of time and space impact upon social and economic interactions at all levels of society. Furthermore, ramifications of this impact are felt by a society, group or individual irrespective of whether or not they use the Internet. The ability to access the Internet, and in particular the costs associated with such access, are therefore important points of consideration. Not only do these costs contribute to the disproportional spread of the Internet across the world's population; they also potentially contribute to uneven patterns of development within, and between countries

The Internet and Business Process Outsourcing in East Africa: Value Chains and Networks of Connectivity-Based Enterprises in Kenya and Rwanda

Internet connectivity is widely considered to be a game changer for knowledge economies of developing countries. The arrival of submarine fibre-optic underwater cables in East Africa in 2009 and 2010 is seen by many as a strong case in point. The fast evolution of the information and communication technology (ICT) landscape of Kenya and Rwanda that ensued has attracted the attention of actors from private investors, development agencies, NGOs, policymakers and many other groups. Kenya became a role model for its wide-spread adoption of mobile money services and a burgeoning ICT application development sector; Rwanda’s government became known for its explicitly ICT-oriented development agenda as well as large-scale ICT projects in government, health and education that aimed to latch onto fast-growing mobile subscription rates and 3G network roll-outs. For this report, we set out to examine the role that changing connectivity has played for a particular component of the ICT sector in Kenya and Rwanda: ICT-enabled business process outsourcing (BPO). BPO has been a priority in the national ICT strategies of both countries, so we anticipated this sector to provide a fertile ground for comparing expectations and practices of the roles that changing connectivity has played following the deployment of fibre-optic cable infrastructure. BPO is also an interesting sector because internet connectivity is at the heart of its value chain: At first glance, fast internet connections should go a long way in bridging geographical distance and enabling Kenyan and Rwandan businesses to tap into continuously growing BPO demand from all over the world. BPO is also inherently a global, or at least a widely geographically distributed, industry. Our analysis was therefore designed to shed light on the risks and opportunities of establishing connectivity-based local sectors that are bound to be exposed to international markets and competition. However, the development of ICT sectors fell short of many original hopes. Internet connectivity proved to only function as a catalyst for economic growth in combination with other enablers. Competitive advantage is always relative, and, in the case of Kenya’s and Rwanda’s BPO sectors, India and other Asian BPO destinations have maintained the edge in international markets. Despite the overall positive evolution of ICT-based subsectors in Kenya and Rwanda, the role of internet connectivity for growth in knowledge economies continues to be a complicated one, including for connectivity-based enterprises. Future opportunities might actually lie in ‘close’ (local and regional) markets, and policymakers (and indeed all economic actors) will need to continue to learn and adjust to other unexpected developments brought about by internet connectivity