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The article describes the diffusion of the Internet in Africa and its impact on its people, organisations and socio‐economic activities. It shows which countries are leading the way and why, and more importantly the problems confronted by people in different countries. A conceptual framework based on the work of Press, Daly and Menou is used to analyse the diffusion of Internet technologies in Africa. A case study, involving the application of web technologies in the agricultural sector, is used as an example of the key role the Internet can play in respect to key socio‐economic activities in Africa. The article concludes by looking at the future developments of the technology.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between internet use and democracy in Africa. It examines the non-linearities and causality between the two variables in the short and long run for 38 countries in Africa.

The study is empirical. It uses pooled mean group and causality tests for the sample of 38 African countries.

The panel long-run and short-run estimates show evidence of significant non-linear relationship between internet usage and democracy. While internet usage is significantly and negatively related to democracy, squared internet usage is significantly but positively related. This suggests that internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy, but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase. Additionally, there is uni-directional causality from internet usage to democracy. However, a bi-directional causality exists between squared internet usage and democracy.

The empirical evidence from this study suggests that internet usage and democracy are highly interrelated to each other in Africa. The findings support that at the macro level, Africa is moving toward a new stage, where internet will lead to improved levels of democracy and digital politics.

Remarkably, the paper shows that democracy displays a quadratic relationship with internet usage. As a whole, the findings indicate a U-shaped pattern: democracy decreases with internet usage, stabilizes, and then increases. In other words, internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy, but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase.

Many African Governments that have frequently imposed restrictions on internet and social media need to stop. The decline in democracy as internet usage increases may be explained by more severity of these restrictions. However, the findings support that at the macro level, Africa is moving toward a new stage, where internet will lead to improved levels of democracy and digital politics.

Contrary to previous conceptual papers, the current study empirically investigates the causality between internet and democracy in 38 African countries. The findings indicate a U-shaped pattern: democracy decreases with internet usage, stabilizes, and then increases. In other words, internet usage increases with the decrease of democracy but after a certain level of internet usage which is the turning point, democracy starts to increase.

This paper aims to investigate whether Sub-Saharan African countries are catching up with the rest of the world in terms of online usage. Online service usage is an important component of the discourse of the “digital divide”, an emblematic term for the inequality of information and communication technology access.

This paper is a quantitative analysis of internet and Facebook penetration coupled with economic strength (GDP/capita), literacy and degree of rural population.

The findings reveal a heterogeneous pattern with a few African countries being digital oases and close to European levels, whereas the majority of the countries are still digital deserts. A strong correlation is found between economic strength and internet penetration. A generalist picture that Sub-Saharan is on the trajectory of closing the digital divide is an imprecise reflection of the reality.

It is argued that instead of measuring supply-side data, which has been the trend till now, the use of demand-side elements such as online service usage tells more about digital inequalities between countries.

The research encourages internet firms to open up their eyes for Sub-Saharan Africa as an investment opportunity with an untapped gap of online usage.

The three-billion internet users on the planet are unevenly spread and under-represented in Africa. By drawing a heterogeneous online usage landscape, digital policy can be accurately steered toward countries with the largest needs.

There is a paucity of research going into the depth of online usage in Africa. The paper is a contribution to fill that gap.

The increased adoption of internet-enabled phones in Africa has caused much speculation and optimism concerning its effects on financial inclusion. Policymakers, the media and various studies have all flaunted the potentials of internet and mobile phones for financial inclusion. An important question therefore is “Can the internet and mobile phones spur the inclusion of the financially excluded poor? This study therefore aims to examine the relationship and causality between internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion in Africa for the 2000-2016 period.

The empirical analysis followed these three steps: examination of the stationarity of the variables; testing for the cointegration; and evaluation of the effects of the internet and mobile phones on financial inclusion in Africa for the 2000-2016 period using three outcomes of panel FMOLS approach and Granger causality tests.

The empirical evidence shows that internet and mobile phones have significant positive relationship with financial inclusion, meaning that rising levels of internet and mobile phones are associated with increased financial inclusion. There is also uni-directional causality from internet and mobile phones to financial inclusion, implying that internet and mobile phones cause financial inclusion. The study also shows that macroeconomic factors such as capital formation, primary enrollment, bank credit, broad money, population growth, remittances, agriculture and interest rate, as well as institutional factors such as regulatory quality are important underlying factors for financial inclusion in Africa.

In the literature, there is a dearth of research on the internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion, especially in Africa. Most of the related studies are conceptual and micro-based, with little empirical attention to the relationship and causality between internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion. In fact, this dearth of rigorous empirical studies has been attributed as the main cause of inadequate policy guidance in enhancing information communication technologies (Roycroft and Anantho, 2003), despite saturation levels in developed economies. This study fills the gap by evaluating the effects of the Internet and mobile phones on financial inclusion for 44 African countries for the 2000-2016 period.

This paper aims to provide an answer as to whether fibre to the home and other types of fixed internet access still have a role to play in Africa beyond a few urban elites, as well as what business models are likely to be successful in the African context.

The paper uses data from nationally representative ICT household surveys conducted in 12 African countries in 2012. These data are complemented by an OECD broadband pricing methodology and data. In addition to the OECD basket methodology, own baskets were defined to capture the complexity of African products, and to draw out the different business models for fixed and mobile broadband.

The paper demonstrates that if fixed internet is provided as an uncapped service at an affordable price, it has a chance to at least co-exist with mobile broadband in Africa. The availability of fixed internet is rapidly diminishing where it is offered as a capped service and not at prices similar to mobile broadband. The paper also demonstrates that fixed-line telecommunication companies should to focus on data only before mobile operators do, and they lose out once again.

In Africa, mobile voice overtook fixed voice at the turn of the millennium with the introduction of prepaid services. Ten years later, mobile internet is rapidly overtaking fixed internet by overcoming key obstacles to fixed internet access. While the developed world discusses the merits of fixed and mobile broadband, it is clear that for Africa, fixed broadband in the form of fibre to the home, or even plain ADSL, will only reach a few urban elites in the next decade. Fixed-line operators then should rethink their pricing and investment strategies: they are advised to invest in high-speed technologies such as VDSL or fibre to the home, if fixed broadband is to stand a chance against mobile broadband. Whether fixed-line operators will lose the data battle as well will be determined by their business decisions as well as by policy and regulatory interventions.

This paper uses primary household and individual data that allows for a better understanding of internet access and use in Africa. The analysis of internet access prices for ADSL against prepaid and post-paid mobile broadband is used to assess broadband business strategies across 12 African countries. The paper provides policymakers and regulators with the evidence required for an informed ICT policy and regulation and it recommends business strategies that should be pursued by operators to improve broadband sector performance.

To examine the technical reasons for excessively slow internet speeds at the University of Botswana, to discover the present state of development efforts addressing such examples of the qualitative digital divide, and to recommend remedies.

Surveys of students, the authors' professional experiences, and reports from corporate, public, and intergovernmental organizations provided insights into the effects – and causes – of internet slowdown.

Bandwidth bottlenecks were identified in successive stages of intercontinental internet traffic. Causes included network design and capacity, telecommunications regulations, and competing budgetary demands within Botswana.

Much of the literature on the digital divide has stressed plentiful hardware and internet connections in affluent societies versus their scarcity in developing societies. This study illustrates that hardware and connections are necessary but not sufficient for adequate online performance. Technological advance and development can each stimulate the other, and that two‐way interconnection necessitates more than a simple call for more spending to increase developing countries' bandwidth. The paper presents recommendations in addition to higher funding.

Student and other micro‐level data serve as measures for the local performance of a global utility, the internet. Tracking message transmission uncovers bottlenecks along the path of the intercontinental internet, specifically as it reaches Africa. These “street‐level” approaches can assist the international aid community, the telecommunications industry, and the public sector in Botswana and elsewhere in removing obstacles to the internet as a potentially important tool for national‐ and human‐development.

According to the declarations of the first World Telecommunications Development Conference in Buenos Aires in 1994, new technological developments in telecommunications and information technologies have the potential to close the development gaps between developing and developed countries. However, it adds, ominously, that telecommunications may also unintentionally perpetuate the development gaps without a more determined, integrated, and strategic approach to the challenges of telecommunications development by governments, the private sector, and international and regional organisations. It adds that liberalisation, private investment, and competition may foster the development of telecommunications. In this paper, an overview is briefly presented of the information infrastructures in the developed world. Then, the status of telecommunications infrastructure and services in Africa are briefly discussed, and the current Internet connectivity within Africa is examined. Finally, possible remedies to the African situation are briefly discussed.

The paper aims to present a historical overview of the use of information communications technology (ICT) tools and platforms, particularly e‐mail and the internet, as tools of cyber‐activism by the labour movement in South Africa. The paper also aims to give some consideration to constraints and challenges facing unions in the South Africa in the effective deployment of such cyber tools.

The paper is based on the experience of a participant observer, incorporating analysis of historical examples of the application of the key ICT tools, and supported by reference to relevant documentation and related literature. The use by unions in South Africa of e‐mail and the internet as tools of organisation and mobilisation is examined against the background of both access barriers and organisation constraints, and in relation to union strategies to address such challenges.

Despite recognition by the South Africa labour movement of the possibilities of e‐mail, the internet and other tools of cyber‐activism, the ability of unions to exploit these tools has been limited, characterised by both successes and failures.

The paper has a relatively narrow focus on the experiences of specific unions in a single country, leading to conclusions which are not necessarily susceptible to generalisation. The lack of availability of both relevant primary documentation and secondary analysis makes it difficult to assess the accuracy of observations and conclusions.

The paper suggests the possibilities and opportunities for unions in similar environments to exploit ICT tools, as well as the barriers and constraints facing their deployment.

The paper presents the analysis and reflections of a uniquely placed participant observer regarding how unions in South Africa have been able to exploit e‐mail and the internet as tools of cyber‐activism. The analysis reveals both possibilities and limitations of cyber‐activism in South Africa.

The inherent nature of the Internet affects financial reporting in the sense that information on a website is available to anyone, anywhere and at any time. Financial reporting on the Internet reduces the cost of financial reporting, makes instantaneous reporting a reality, adds breadth and depth to business reporting, allows analytical tools to be used on underlying business data and makes it easier to disseminate reports to any place in the world where there is a computer. A cursory exploration of financial reporting on the websites of South African companies reveals great variations in terms of the amount of content (e.g. summary financial statements vs detailed financial statements), the style of presentation (e.g. similar to paper‐based reports vs inclusion of multi‐media) and the manner in which companies incorporate navigation aids (e.g. hyperlinks, search boxes and others). The advantages of the Internet as a new mode of information dissemination are clear, but Internet financial reporting creates a number of challenges for companies and their auditors as well as for regulatory and standard‐setting organisations. This paper assesses Internet reporting in South Africa. It explores the manner in which financial and certain non‐financial information is presented on companies’ websites and determine whether reporting practices on the websites of South African companies differ fromthose of their international counterparts. The study revealed that although Internet usage in South Africa has expanded as a medium for presentation of financial information via companies’ websites, top South African companies use their websites as a bulletin board with limited real‐time financial information and note disclaimers.

Developing countries generally have low levels of Internet services, and as a result require different approaches to impact measurement than developed countries. A conceptual framework is proposed which accepts a role for technological innovation, but which rejects technological determinism. It recognizes that economic, social, political and cultural factors affect the penetration and use of the Internet. It emphasizes direct and indirect impacts of the Internet on people, while including impacts on institutions and the environmental factors and policies that affect institutional impacts. Ultimately the Internet is an induced innovation, but developing countries still suffer from the Matthew principle – that those who have most will be given still more. Impacts of the Internet range from communications cost savings, to changes in performance of individual businesses, NGOs, government agencies, and schools, to changes in performance of markets, to those measured in terms of economic growth, equity, health status, knowledge, and environmental quality. The overall view of the impacts of the Internet emerges (as does the picture in a jigsaw puzzle) from combining many studies of specific effects, each conveying a part of the picture. The majority of the people of the world live in low and middle income countries; they have the greatest need of the Internet to help solve the pressing problems of poverty, and they are the least prepared to use the technology and appropriate its benefits. Clearly great benefits are available to developing countries from appropriate uses of even their scarce Internet networks. Many of the institutions affected by the Internet are international. Internet impacts on these international institutions must be confronted. Thus developing countries may face significant risks from participation in international financial, labor and goods and services markets, because of significant gaps in connectivity and in knowledge and information. On the other hand, they may benefit greatly from power uses of the Internet abroad, of which Africans are scarcely aware, such as famine early warning and epidemiological alert systems. Donor agencies encourage the development of the Internet in developing countries, and especially in Africa. Several have agreed to work collaboratively to learn the lessons from their experience. Such efforts are important if the potential of the Internet is to be realized in developing countries, the risks inherent in the Internet are to be avoided or ameliorated, and the net effect to be enhanced equity and social and economic growth.