Research on ICT development in Africa: countries focusing on benefits, trends, challenges and solutions

Abstract

Enhancing Socio-Economic development through Information Communication Technology (ICT) is ongoing debate. Developed and developing nations have progressed in ICT use to facilitate socio-economic development but Africa still lacks behind in its ICT-based development agenda. Africa's efforts at using ICT for Socio-Economic development are not as promising as Asia-Pacific region. This paper outlines the roles of ICT in addressing benefits, trends, challenges and solutions in IT development in Africa. It addresses polices to enhance Socio-Economic development through ICTs. The paper stresses that the inability to enhance Socio-Economic development in Africa through ICT is due to the digital divide caused by inadequate infrastructure, high cost of access, inappropriate policy regimes, network telecommunication provision inefficiency, language divides, and lack of locally created content. The paper concludes that with increased cooperation between governments, private sector and the ICT industry, there is hope for growth and sustainability of ICT and accessibility to digital information.