The digital gap and rise in cybersecurity cases in Africa could be the main setback to attaining a fully digitalised African economy by 2030.
According to the World Bank's latest Economic Outlook, digital transformation is one key area that should be navigated adequately because of its potential in driving growth.
In a statement, the lender says the current trends in digital development and adoption amid the increasing pace of economic and social advancement, could lead to many youths being denied the opportunity to live up to their potential.
“There is an expanding youth population, and digital technologies could offer a chance to disrupt this trajectory by unlocking new pathways for rapid economic growth, innovation, job creation and access to services which would have been unimaginable only a decade ago,” World Bank says.
However, the lender reiterates that there is a growing digital divide and increased cyber risks that need urgent and coordinated action to mitigate.
Cybersecurity has been a pain in the back for most African countries in the past years.
In Kenya for instance, cases of cyber crimes have been on the rise in the past two years as stakeholders strive to devise ways of curbing the vice.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), reveal that cybersecurity advisories issued to companies increased by about 3,693 percent from 81,727 in 2020 to 3.1 million advisories in 2021.
Also, according to a recent ranking by Cybersecurity company Surfshark on countries’ digital well-being, Kenya was ranked position 78 globally.
This was on the basis of the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) that compared a total of 117 countries, 92 per cent representation of the global population.
The evaluation looked at internet quality, e-government, e-infrastructure, internet affordability and e-security.
According to Surfshark, the country’s performance on the sectors is said to have remained low bringing it to position 78 in the world and fifth in Africa.
Kenya's weakest spot is internet quality, ranked at position 106, which according to the research, it needs to improve by almost 140 per cent to match the best-ranking countries.
The digital gap has also been a challenge in the country over the years.
A study dubbed ‘Kenya’s Digital Economy: A People’s Perspective’ in 2021, revealed that 35 per cent of women were found to use advanced digital services compared to 54 per cent of men.
The attributing factors included discrimination, harmful social norms, the education divide, geography and lack of motivation.
Also in the face of waging inflation, fixed broadband internet is noted to have become less affordable worldwide for the second year in a row, prying the global digital divide even further.
The aforementioned concerns in digital transformation have thus been noted to make digital startups struggle to attract funding even as traditional businesses slowly adopt digital technologies and platforms to boost productivity and sales.
World Bank, therefore, calls on innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders to empower their youths with digital skills and access to technology and markets that are essential to thrive in an increasingly digitised global economy.
“Governments need to find more nimble and effective means of delivering services and interacting with citizens while businesses need to utilise digitally-centered business models to connect with the hundreds of millions of customers previously out of reach due to geography or low income,” the lender adds.
