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Technological Utilization in Africa: How Do Institutions Matter?

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Technology and Innovation for Social Change

Abstract

Though quite a lot has been said about the role technology (e.g. Information and Communication Technology – ICT) can play in economic growth of countries, not much is known on how institutions and economic development can influence the relationship especially in Africa where available indicators show low level of ICT utilisation. Based on the above, we examine how institutional quality and economic development can interact to determine the extent of ICT utilisation in 45 African countries. The main results show that a unit improvement in institutional quality and human capital development will advance the level of ICT utilisation. We submit that human capital development that is built on strong institutional quality is crucial if African countries greatly desire to enhance ICT utilisation and optimally experience the associated benefits.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The countries include: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, and Kenya. Others are: Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

  2. 2.

    The respective country fixed effect was not reported as it was not the main focus of the study and for sake of brevity.

  3. 3.

    The Sargan/Hansen test is asymptotically distributed as a chi-square with degree of freedom equal to the number of instruments less the number of parameters. For the model to be correctly specified, the variables in the instrument set should be uncorrelated with the idiosyncratic component of the error term.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

    Uchenna R. Efobi

  2. Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

    Evans S. Osabuohien

  3. German Development Institute, Bonn, Germany

    Evans S. Osabuohien

Authors
  1. Uchenna R. Efobi
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  2. Evans S. Osabuohien
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uchenna R. Efobi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, School of Management & Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Satyajit Majumdar

  2. Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, School of Management & Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Samapti Guha

  3. Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, School of Management & Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Nadiya Marakkath

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Efobi, U.R., Osabuohien, E.S. (2015). Technological Utilization in Africa: How Do Institutions Matter?. In: Majumdar, S., Guha, S., Marakkath, N. (eds) Technology and Innovation for Social Change. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2071-8_5

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