The impact of investments in ICT, health and education on development: a DEA analysis of five African countries from 1993-1999

For more than a decade international institutions, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the UN and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have been pushing African countries to invest in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a strategy for social and economic development. They argue that ICT infrastructure is a prerequisite for adequate development, and suggest ICT will bring ‘opportunities of the global digital economy’ to remote parts and communities of Africa. Through out the era of the 1990’s African countries have followed this advice and invested heavily in ICT infrastructure expansion. However, little research has been done to determine the impact of these policies. Now that much of Africa faces challenges of health epidemics and crumbling civil infrastructure (roads, water supply, etc) African policy makers must make crucial decisions: Should they continue to invest heavily in ICT infrastructure or shift focus to health care and education and so on? In this paper we attempt to fill this gap in research on ICT in Africa. We investigate investments in ICT, health care and education and their efficiency with regard to improving human development measures for five African countries for the period 1993-1999, which is the period during which consistent and sustained ICT investments took place in the countries under study. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and archival data from the ITU and World Bank. Our findings suggest that some countries are technically efficient but others could benefit from alternative policies to improve their utilization of ICT and other investments to achieve higher levels of development as defined by key Human Development Index (HDI) measures

Are Investments in ICT Impacting Economic Freedom in Africa? A Tobit Regression Analysis of Five African Countries from 1995-2002

The World Society of Information Systems (WSIS) has been advocating for world communities to take vantage opportunities which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides. In addition and for two decades, other international institutions such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, UN and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have been supporting African countries to invest in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a strategic tool for social and economic development. WSIS annual forum regularly checks ICT acquisition and advancement Country by Country to ascertain ICT’s impact of each Country and Region. These institutions believe that ICT is a support boat for less developed countries that missed previous revolutions. Reviewed literature suggests that ICT will bring ‘opportunities for global digital economy’ to remote parts and communities of Africa. Yet, little results have been seen so far. UN agency for development is evaluating the outcome of its decades of investments in ICT to ascertain the derived benefits. Presently, the increasing amount of transactions taking place over the internet is greatly influencing trading laws and practices in the western world. Relatively, the assessment of ICT impact on economic freedom is necessary for African countries. Before moving to new stages in their adoption of the technology, it would be wise for African countries to assess the progress made in decades of adoption. The problem of this assessment lies in the lack of African ICT’s sector empirical research. This paper investigates the impact of ICT investments on economic freedom. The paper uses Tobit regression to analyze six West African Countries data from 1995 to 2002. The empirical findings show that ICT use is not contributing to economic freedom in the countries of our study

Interrogating the impact of ICT infrastructure expansion in Francophone West Africa 1993-2005 : a critical theory study using archival data and non-parametric research methods

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-209).This thesis critically investigates the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure expansion on Development in Six West African Countries. While recent research has shown that ICT has contributed significantly to economic and social transformation in Western developed countries, the same is not necessarily true for less developed countries. After over a decade of heavy investment in ICT infrastructure expansion in Africa, little empirical research on the contribution of ICT to development has been conducted to assess the impact of these investments on the development of these countries. This work is a groundbreaking effort to advance a much needed research program to measure the impact of ICT infrastructure expansion on development in Africa

Are ICT investments paying off in Africa? An analysis of total factor productivity in six West African countries from 1995 to 2002

In the past two decades, we have seen increasing debate about information and communication technology (ICT) as an engine of growth that could lift developing nations out of poverty. Many African nations have implemented market liberalization and invested huge sums of money into their ICT sectors. But few studies have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of these investments. Demonstrating ICT sector performance is especially important because of challenges of the development of ICT policy and the United Nations agencies inability to state firmly if there are benefits to these investments. In this article, we investigated the total factor productivity (TFP) of the ICT sectors in six West African countries from 1995 to 2002. While the findings demonstrate positive growth in TFP, there is cause for concern. TFP growth in the ICT sector has been declining, and these countries are not yet able to take advantage of scale efficiencies. Careful attention must be given to future ICT investment strategies and performance management of existing ICT infrastructure if continued growth is to be achieved