Abstract
Despite the positive impact that renewable energy can offer its development is not necessarily and widely implemented by countries. It is against this backdrop this study investigates whether renewable energy contribute to economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) between the periods 2005–2022. The study accounted for the role of information communication technology and globalization in stimulating economic growth. For empirical analysis, this study adopted Pooled Mean Group (PMG) Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model approach and other batteries of techniques for robustness testing. It was observed that both renewable energy and information communication technology (ICT) indicate a negative and significant impact on economic growth in the long run. The study further established a positive and significant impact of globalization and economic growth in the long run. This indicates the vital role of ICT and globalization in accelerating economic growth. In terms of policy suggestions, this study believes that infrastructural development, incentives among others could make renewable energy more affordable and attractive for private sector participation. There is also the need to provide research funding to develop home-produced technology to improve energy supply in the region, particularly in rural areas.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adebayo TS, Rjoub H, Akadiri SS, Oladipupo SD, Sharif A, Adeshola I (2022) The role of economic complexity in the environmental Kuznets curve of MINT economies: evidence from the method of moments quantile regression. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(16):24248–24260
AfDB (2013) Rwanda Energy Sector Review and Action Plan. https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and-Operations/Rwanda_-_Energy_Sector_Review_and_Action_Plan.pdf
AfDB (2023) In Angola, the African Development Bank supports the Renewable Energy Sector. https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/angola-african-development-bank-supports-renewable-energy-sector-59123
Akadiri SS, Adebayo TS (2022) Asymmetric nexus among financial globalization, non-renewable energy, renewable energy use, economic growth, and carbon emissions: impact on environmental sustainability targets in India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(11):16311–16323
Akadiri SS, Adebayo TS, Asuzu OC, Onuogu IC, Oji-Okoro I (2023) Testing the role of economic complexity on the ecological footprint in China: a nonparametric causality-in-quantiles approach. Energy Environ 34(7):2290–2316
Akadiri SS, Alola AA, Akadiri AC, Alola UV (2019a) Renewable energy consumption in EU-28 countries: policy toward pollution mitigation and economic sustainability. Energy Policy 132:803–810
Akadiri SS, Lasisi TT, Uzuner G, Akadiri AC (2020) Examining the causal impacts of tourism, globalization, economic growth and carbon emissions in tourism island territories: bootstrap panel Granger causality analysis. Curr Iss Tour 23(4):470–484.
Albiman MM, Sulong Z (2017) The linear and non-linear impacts of ICT on economic growth, of disaggregate income groups within SSA region. In Telecommunications Policy (Vol. 41, Issues 7–8, pp. 555–572). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2017.07.007
AlNemer HA, Hkiri B, Tissaoui K (2023) The dynamic impact of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on CO2 emission and economic growth in Saudi Arabia: fresh evidence from wavelet coherence analysis. In renewable energy. Elsevier BV 209:340–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.03.084
Alola AA, Alola UV, Akadiri SS (2019) Renewable energy consumption in Coastline Mediterranean countries: impact of environmental degradation and housing policy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:25789–25801
Alola AA, Saint Akadiri S (2021) Clean energy development in the United States amidst augmented socioeconomic aspects and country-specific policies. Renewable Energy 169:221–230
Alola AA, Yalçiner K, Alola UV, Saint Akadiri S (2019b) The role of renewable energy, immigration and real income in environmental sustainability target. Evidence from Europe largest states. Sci Total Environ 674:307–315
Apergis N, Payne JE (2011) The renewable energy consumption–growth nexus in Central America. Appl Energy 88(1):343–347
Appiah-Otoo I, Song N (2021) The impact of ICT on economic growth-comparing rich and poor countries. Telecomm Policy 45(2):102082
Awad A, Albaity M (2022) ICT and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Transmission channels and effects. In Telecommunications Policy (Vol. 46, Issue 8, p. 102381). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102381
Bakry W, Nghiem X-H, Farouk S, Vo XV (2023) Does it hurt or help? Revisiting the effects of ICT on economic growth and energy consumption: a nonlinear panel ARDL approach. In economic analysis and policy. Elsevier BV 78:597–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2023.03.026
Baltagi BH (2008) Econometric analysis of panel data, 3rd edn. Wiley, Somerset, NJ
Bataka H (2019) De jure, de facto globalization and economic growth in Sub-saharan Africa. J Econ Integr 34(1):133–158. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26588467
Bauer SE, Im U, Mezuman K, Gao CY (2019) Desert Dust, Industrialization, and agricultural fires: Health impacts of Outdoor Air Pollution in Africa. J Geophys Research: Atmos (Vol 124:4104–4120. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018jd029336. American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Bekun FV, Akadiri SS (2019) Poverty and agriculture in Southern Africa revisited: a panel causality perspective. Sage Open 9(1):2158244019828853
Bello AA, Renai J, Hassan A, Akadiri SS, Itari AR (2023) Synergy effects of ICT diffusion and foreign direct investment on inclusive growth in Sub-saharan Africa. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(4):9428–9444
Bui Minh T, Bui Van H (2023) Evaluating the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in Vietnam, 1995–2019. In Energy reports. Elsevier BV 9:609–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.11.074
Buysse J, Can M, Gozgor G (2018) Globalization outcomes and the real output in the sub-saharan Africa LICs: a cointegration analysis. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja 31(1):338–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2018.1426471
Centurion (2022) Renewable Energy Plans in Cameroon. https://centurionlg.com/2022/02/07/renewable-energy-plans-in-cameroon-2/
Chang T, Gupta R, Inglesi-Lotz R, Simo-Kengne B, Smithers D, Trembling A (2015) Renewable energy and growth: evidence from a heterogeneous panel of G7 countries using Granger causality. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 52:1405–1412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.022
CSIR (2022) Csir releases statistics on power generation in south africa for 2022. https://www.csir.co.za/csir-releases-statistics-on-power-generation-south-africa-2022
Dreher A (2006) Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new index of globalization. Appl Econ 38(10):1091–1110
Dreher A, Gaston N, Martens P (2008) Measuring globalization. Gauging its Consequences Springer, New York
Dumitrescu EI, Hurlin C (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Econ Model 29(4):1450–1460
Eluwole KK, Akadiri S, Alola S, A. A., Etokakpan MU (2020) Does the interaction between growth determinants drive global environmental sustainability? Evidence from the world’s top 10 pollutant emissions countries. Sci Total Environ 705:135972
Enerdata (2022) Mozambique energy report. https://www.enerdata.net/estore/country-profiles/mozambique.html
Fernández-Portillo A, Almodóvar-González M, Hernández-Mogollón R (2020) Impact of ICT development on economic growth. A study of OECD European Union countries. In technology in Society. Elsevier BV 63:101420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101420
Fernández-Portillo A, Almodóvar-González M, Hernández-Mogollón R (2020) Impact of ICT development on economic growth. A study of OECD European union countries. Technol Soc 63:101420.
Gurgul H, Lach Ł (2014) Globalization and economic growth: evidence from two decades of transition in CEE. Econ Model 36:99–107
Gygli S, Haelg F, Potrafke N, Sturm JE (2019) The KOF globalization index–revisited. Rev Int Organ 14:543–574
Gyimah J, Yao X, Tachega MA, Hayford S, I., Opoku-Mensah E (2022) Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: new evidence from Ghana. In Energy. Elsevier BV 248:123559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.123559
Haftu GG (2019) Information communications technology and economic growth in Sub-saharan Africa: a panel data approach. Telecomm Policy 43(1):88–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2018.03.010
Haldar A, Sucharita S, Dash DP, Sethi N, Chandra Padhan P (2023) The effects of ICT, electricity consumption, innovation and renewable power generation on economic growth: An income level analysis for the emerging economies. In Journal of Cleaner Production (Vol. 384, p. 135607). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135607
Haldar A, Sucharita S, Dash DP, Sethi N, Padhan PC (2023) The effects of ICT, electricity consumption, innovation and renewable power generation on economic growth: An income level analysis for the emerging economies. J Clean Product 384:135607.
Hassan ST, Xia E, Huang J, Khan NH, Iqbal K (2019) Natural resources, globalization, and economic growth: evidence from Pakistan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:15527–15534
Hieu VM, Mai NH (2022) Impact of renewable energy on economic growth? Novel evidence from developing countries through MMQR estimations. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol 30. Springer Science and Business Media LLC, pp 578–593. 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21956-7
Huang Y, Haseeb M, Usman M, Ozturk I (2022) Dynamic association between ICT, renewable energy, economic complexity, and ecological footprint: is there any difference between E-7 (developing) and G-7 (developed) countries? In technology in Society. Elsevier BV 68:101853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101853
IEA (2022) Access to electricity—SDG7: Data and Projections. https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/access-to-electricity
IEA (2022) Energy profile-Malawi. https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Statistics/Statistical_Profiles/Africa/Malawi_Africa_RE_SP.pdf
IEA (2022) Ghana Energy Outlook: Key indicators and policy initiatives. https://www.iea.org/articles/ghana-energy-outlook
IEA (2023) Financing clean energy in Africa. World Energy Outlook Special Report. International Energy Agency. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/f76594a5-8a9f-4820-ba3e-2908e03b02a9/FinancingCleanEnergyinAfrica.pdf
Im KS, Pesaran MH, Shin Y (2003) Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. J Econ 115(1):53–74
İnal V, Addi HM, Çakmak EE, Torusdağ M, Çalışkan M (2022) The nexus between renewable energy, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: Empirical evidence from African oil-producing countries. In Energy Reports (Vol. 8, pp. 1634–1643). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2021.12.051
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) (2022) Renewable Energy Market Analysis: Africa and its Regions. https://www.irena.org/publications/2022/Jan/Renewable-Energy-Market-Analysis-Africa
IRENA (2022) Energy profile-Rwanda. https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Statistics/Statistical_Profiles/Africa/Rwanda_Africa_RE_SP.pdf
Kao C (1999) Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data. J Econ 90(1):1–44
Koenker R, Bassett G (1978) Regression quantiles. Economet J Econom Soc 33–50.
Kouton J (2021) The impact of renewable energy consumption on inclusive growth: panel data analysis in 44 African countries. Economic Change Restruct 54(1):145–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-020-09270-z
Levin A, Lin CF, Chu CSJ (2002) Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite sample properties. J Econ 108(1):1–24
Lyeonov S, Pimonenko T, Bilan Y, Štreimikienė D, Mentel G (2019) Assessment of green investments’ impact on sustainable development: linking gross domestic product per capita, greenhouse gas emissions, and renewable energy. Energies 12(20):3891. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12203891
Maddala GS, Wu S (1999) A comparative study of Unit Root tests with Panel Data and a new simple test. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. 61, pp.631 – 52
Nguyen CP, Doytch N (2022) The impact of ICT patents on economic growth: An international evidence. In Telecommunications Policy (Vol. 46, Issue 5, p. 102291). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2021.102291
Pedroni P (1999) Critical values for cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels with multiple regressors. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 61(S1):653–670
Pedroni P (2000) Fully modified OLS for heterogeneous cointegrated panels. Nonstationary panels, panel cointegration, and dynamic panels, vol 15. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp 93–130
Pedroni P (2001) Purchasing power parity tests in cointegrated panels. Rev Econ Stat 83(4):727–731
Pesaran MH, Shin Y, Smith RP (1999) Pooled mean group estimation of dynamic heterogeneous panels. J Am Stat Assoc 94(446):621–634
Qudrat-Ullah H, Nevo CM (2021) The impact of renewable energy consumption and environmental sustainability on economic growth in Africa. In Energy reports. Elsevier BV 7:3877–3886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2021.05.083
Saba CS (2023) Nexus between CO2 emissions, renewable energy consumption, militarisation, and economic growth in South Africa: Evidence from using novel dynamic ARDL simulations. In Renewable Energy (Vol. 205, pp. 349–365). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.01.070
Saba CS, Biyase M (2022) Determinants of renewable electricity development in Europe: Do Governance indicators and institutional quality matter? Energy Rep 8:13914–13938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.09.184
Saba CS, Djemo CRT, Eita JH, Ngepah N (2023) Towards environmental sustainability path in Africa: The critical role of ICT, renewable energy sources, agriculturalization, industrialization and institutional quality. Energy Rep 10:4025–4050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2023.10.039
Saba CS, Ngepah N (2022a) Convergence in renewable energy consumption and their influencing factors across regions: evidence from convergence algorithm approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(40):61412–61445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19731-9
Saba CS, Ngepah N (2022b) ICT diffusion, industrialisation and economic growth nexus: An international cross-country analysis. J Knowl Econ 13(3):2030–2069.
Saint Akadiri S, Alola AA, Olasehinde-Williams G, Etokakpan MU (2020) The role of electricity consumption, globalization and economic growth in carbon dioxide emissions and its implications for environmental sustainability targets. Sci Total Environ 708:134653
Shahbaz M, Raghutla C, Chittedi KR, Jiao Z, Vo XV (2020) The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: evidence from the renewable energy country attractive index. In Energy. Elsevier BV 207:118162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118162
Shakouri B, Khoshnevis Yazdi S (2017) Causality between renewable energy, energy consumption, and economic growth. Energy Sources Part B: Econ Plann Policy 12(9):838–845. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2017.1312640
Stanley TD, Doucouliagos H, Steel P (2018) Does ICT generate economic growth? A meta-regression analysis. J Economic Surveys 32(3):705–726
Suci SC, Asmara A, Mulatsih S (2016) The impact of globalization on economic growth in ASEAN. BISNIS BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi Dan Organisasi 22(2):1
Tariq G, Sun H, Fernandez-Gamiz U, Mansoor S, Pasha AA, Ali S, Khan MS (2023) Effects of globalization, foreign direct investment, and economic growth on renewable electricity consumption. In Heliyon. Elsevier BV 9(3):e14635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14635
UNICEF (2019) Silent Suffocation in Africa: Air Pollution is a growing menace. Affecting the Poorest Children the Most. UNICEF
Usman A, Ozturk I, Hassan A, Maria Zafar S, Ullah S (2021) The effect of ICT on energy consumption and economic growth in south Asian economies: an empirical analysis. In Telematics and Informatics. Elsevier BV 58:101537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2020.101537
Usman O, Akadiri SS, Adeshola I (2020) Role of renewable energy and globalization on ecological footprint in the USA: implications for environmental sustainability. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27(24):30681–30693
Usman O, Alola AA, Saint Akadiri S (2022) Effects of domestic material consumption, renewable energy, and financial development on environmental sustainability in the EU-28: evidence from a GMM panel-VAR. Renewable Energy 184:239–251
Wang Q, Dong Z, Li R, Wang L (2022) Renewable energy and economic growth: New insight from country risks. In Energy. Elsevier BV 238:122018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.122018
Weforum (2023) Here’s how Nigeria is tackling the barriers to its green energy transition. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/05/how-nigeria-is-tackling-barriers-to-its-green-energy-transition/
World Bank (2022) Chad Scales Up Its Access to Energy. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/24/afw-tchad-accelere-son-acces-a-energie
World Bank (2022) World Bank group announces major initiative to electrify sub-Saharan Africa with distributed renewable energy. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/11/09/world-bank-group-announces-major-initiative-to-electrify-sub-saharan-africa-with-distributed-renewable-energy
World Bank (2023), May 28 Renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption) - Sub-Saharan Africa. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.FEC.RNEW.ZS?locations=ZG
Yang L, Zhou X, Feng X (2022) Renewable energy led Economic Growth Hypothesis: evidence from novel panel methods for N-11 economies. In renewable energy. Elsevier BV 197:790–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.07.025
Ying YH, Chang K, Lee CH (2014) The impact of globalization on economic growth. Romanian J Economic Forecast 17(2):25–34. https://ipe.ro/rjef/rjef2_14/rjef2_2014p25-34.pdf
Ze F, Yu W, Ali A, Hishan SS, Muda I, Khudoykulov K (2023) Influence of natural resources, ICT, and financial globalization on economic growth: Evidence from G10 countries. In Resources Policy (Vol. 81, p. 103254). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103254
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The contents of this paper are authors’ sole responsibility. They do not represent the view of any of these institutions.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Tule, J.M., Offum, P.F., Haouas, I. et al. Harmonizing renewable energy and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: the transformative potential of ICT. Int Econ Econ Policy (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10368-024-00617-9
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10368-024-00617-9