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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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of information and communications technology (ICT) on the provision of social services, as well as the moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between ICT and the provision of social services for 31 low-income countries.

This study is based on panel data from World Development Indicators and Worldwide Governance Indicators spanning 1996 to 2020 for 31 low-income countries. To analyze the data, the study uses cross-sectional dependence tests, slope heterogeneity tests, panel unit root tests, panel cointegration tests and cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) analysis.

The results overwhelmingly show that ICT has a significant positive effect on the provision of social services in both the short- and long-run. Also, the study reveals that institutional quality has a significant positive impact on the provision of social services in the short- and long-run. The results further provide empirical evidence of the positive and significant moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between ICT and the provision of social services.

This study points out the significant potential of identifying appropriate scales of ICT infrastructure and institutional quality needed to support the various governments in low-income countries to improve social services delivery mechanisms and outreach efficacy and impact. The study can be invaluable for ICT innovators and policymakers in promoting the provision of social services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to determine the effect of ICT on the provision of social services, as well as the moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between ICT and the provision of social services, especially for low-income countries using CS-ARDL.

This study aims to investigate the effect of oil prices, economic growth and information communication technology (ICT) on investment into renewable energy transition (RET).

Based on six selected African countries (i.e. Algeria, Egypt, Angola, Ethiopia, South Africa and Nigeria), the study uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model over the period from 1995 to 2020.

The results show that increasing oil prices, by substitution effect, leads to increasing RET investment, while declining oil prices lead to decreasing RET investment in the short and long run. Furthermore, the results reveal that increasing real gross domestic product leads to increased RET investment, while declining real gross domestic product (GDP) leads to decreasing RET investment both in the short and long run. Simultaneously, the study shows that increasing ICT has a significant and positive impact on RET investment, while declining ICT has a significant negative impact on RET investment in the short and long run.

The findings of this study have advanced the understanding of which factors significantly influence RET investment and the need to concentrate efforts on strategically addressing those factors. The findings indicate that these countries are at the progressive stage in terms of renewable energy; though increasing oil prices contribute to rising RET investment, the countries can be more proactive by improving the full potential of ICT as well as facilitating the growth of their economies.

Does financial inclusion matter for productivity among smallholder farmers? The authors answer this question by using the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey to examine the extent to which financial inclusion affects productivity among smallholder farmers in Ghana.

The study uses a pooled data of the 6th and 7th rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey which are national representative data. The authors model an Instrumental Variable (IV) to correct for endogeneity in financial inclusion and a dominance analysis to examine the effects of access to credit, ownership of savings account and insurance product on farmers' productivity.

Results from the study indicate that financial inclusion significantly enhances productivity. Moreover, credit, savings and insurance products influence productivity at various degrees. Thus, expanding the scope of financial services (access to credit, savings and insurance) among smallholder farmers is crucial for inclusive finance and sustainable agricultural production.

The findings of the study have implications for financial institutions in the design of financial products that the meet the needs of smallholder farmers.

Several studies have looked at how access to credit influences agricultural productivity in Africa. However, in recent times financial inclusion has been advocated for because it goes beyond mere access to credit. This paper to the best of our knowledge is the first of its kind to examine how financial inclusion could affect agricultural productivity in Ghana.

Evidence abounds on surging disasters, mainly as consequences of poor risk identification and management, which have historically accompanied disaster management in many African countries. Effective management of disaster risks, whether natural or man-made, is necessary for building resilience, enhancing mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and adaptation. As part of a broad-based risk management approach, Nigeria made frantic efforts to mitigate the effects of various disasters, by establishing relevant institutions and formulating policies. In spite of these efforts, implementation outcomes have not been adequately quantified and managed. This study reviews and assesses the policies and practices of disaster risk management (DRM) vis-á-vis institutional framework in Nigeria. It utilises available data and policy documents to review and analyse Nigeria’s institutional framework. Furthermore, the study carries out implicative scenario analysis based on the current institutional framework, to match the DRM trends. It also proffers recommendations on how best institutions could drive proper DRM in Nigeria. The strengths, opportunities, gaps and constraints associated with disaster and risk reduction in Nigeria are then highlighted.

This study examines the moderating effect of institutional quality on the finance-growth nexus in South Africa from 1986 to 2015.

This study adopts unit root tests, cointegration test and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model.

The findings reveal that institutional quality constitutes a drain to the growth benefits of financial development (FD) in South Africa in the short-run while FD and institutional quality converge to enhance growth process of the country in the long-run. Also, the threshold of institutional quality beyond which institution stimulates strong positive impact of finance on growth is estimated to be 6.42 on a 10-point scale.

This study, therefore, suggests that institutional quality matters in the way FD influences economic growth in South Africa. Hence, stakeholders are encouraged to trace and block lapses and loopholes in the institutional framework guiding financial system in South Africa so as to maximize growth benefits of FD.

This study contributes to the extant studies by introducing a country-specific analysis into the empirical examination of how institutional quality influences the impact of FD on economic growth. Also, this study deviates from other studies by determining the threshold of institutional quality beyond which FD stimulates strong positive effect on economic growth in South Africa

The purpose of the study is to elicit risk factors that are peculiar to public-private partnership (PPP)-procured mass housing in Nigeria from the expert perspectives in ensuring the success of the scheme thereby reducing housing deficit in the country.

The risk inherent in construction projects had been established through literature in general. The risk in PPP projects is emerging because of the recent acceptance of the procurement option by governments all over the globe. The Nigerian Government has also adopted the procurement option in bridging the housing deficit in the country. This study, therefore, conducts a Delphi survey on the probability of risk occurrence peculiar to PPP mass housing projects (MHPs) in Nigeria. Pragmatic research approach through the mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted for this study. The quantitative method adopts the administration of questionnaires through the Delphi survey, whereas the qualitative method used interviews with the respondents. A two-stage Delphi questionnaire was administered to construction practitioners that cut across academics, the public and the private sectors by adopting convenient sampling techniques and following the Delphi principles and procedures. A total of 63 risk factors were submitted to the expert to rank on a Likert scale of 7 and any risk factors that the mean item score (MIS) falls below the grading scale of the five-point benchmark is deemed not necessary a risk factor associated with PPP MHPs and thereby expunged from the second round of the Delphi Survey. The interview was subsequently applied to the respondents to substantiate the risk factors that are peculiar to PPP-procured mass housing in the study area.

The findings show that risk factors such as maintenance frequent than expected, life of facility shorter than anticipated and maintenance cost higher than expected fall below 5.0 benchmark with MIS of 4.64 and 4.55 indicating that the risk factors are not peculiar to PPP mass housing in Nigeria.

The implication for practise of this research is that these risk factors provide the PPP stakeholders with the comprehensive checklists that can aid in developing PPP risk assessment guidelines in the sector though both partners should be aware of the dynamic nature of risk because new ones might be emerging.

The authors hereby declare that the research findings are a product of a thorough research conducted in the study area and have not to be submitted or published by another person or publisher and due acknowledgement was made where necessary.