Technological revolution, sustainability, and development in Africa: Overview, emerging issues, and challenges

Abstract

The paper examines the silent technological revolution in sub‐Saharan Africa focusing on emerging issues and challenges. In view of the centrality of technology diffusion in fostering local innovations and economic development in developing countries, it is surprising that our understanding of the challenges and opportunities in scaling‐up technologies remains limited. This paper capitalises on the ongoing silent technological revolution in sub‐Saharan Africa to present an overview of how new technologies have been adopted and utilised to achieve sustainability. The study identified a host of factors such as weak regulatory enforcement systems, lack of financial credit availability, and limited banking services, which have created conditions for technological innovations such as mobile phone‐based banking, mPedigree, “cardiopad,” and M‐PEPEA to emerge. The public policy implications and directions for future research are identified and examined.

The Relevance of Financial Inclusion on Sustainable Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Nations

“…The observations and resulting empirical analysis give further knowledge about SDG 8 which in the actual sense maintains inclusive and sustainable growth of the economy as well as buoyant and productive employment status. The latest theoretical and methodological literature widely confirms the value of financial access, including fostering personal and corporate investment opportunities; raising living conditions and offering work opportunities [31][32][33][34][35][36][37].…”

Influence in Technological Innovation Spaces: A Network Science Approach to Understand Innovation for Sustainability in the Global South

“…However, similar to the startups they support, tech hubs can also be fragile as empirically observable by the 150 hubs that ceased operations between 2016 and 2018 [24]. This tension between tech hubs holding vast economic potential, yet being vulnerable to closure, has contributed to research focused on the sustainability of tech hubs [28,29]. Research has also underscored the importance of analyzing hubs beyond economic inputs and outputs by understanding their impact on aspects of human development, such as wellbeing and agency [12].…”

Information Technology and Gender Economic Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…It is worth noting that both ICT and education are vital for the creation and diffusion of knowledge which is indispensable for contemporary economic and human developments. According to the associated studies in this theoretical strand, neoclassical models support the view that ICT is particularly crucial for social, economic and political progress in countries at initial stages of industrialization (Abramowitz, 1986;Amankwah-Amoah, 2019;Bernard & Jones, 1996;Asongu, Nwachukwu & Aziz, 2018). Recent inclusive human development literature which has built on these theoretical insights to establish the importance of ICT in inclusive socioeconomic outcomes and human wellbeing include Muthinja and Chipeta (2018); Bongomin et al (2018); Okolo-Obasi (2018a, 2018b) and Asongu, le Roux, Nwachukwu and Pyke (2019).…”

“…Given the persuasive need to achieve the goals outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), information and communication technology (ICT) has emerged as an effective mechanism for achieving such objectives (World Bank, 2016;Sugiawan & Managi, 2019). Despite the pivotal role and effects of new technology adoption and scalingup (Amankwah-Amoah, 2019;Amankwah-Amoah & Hinson, 2019;You et al, 2019), there remains limited understanding on how best ICT can be harnessed to help deliver gender inclusion.…”