Speed of Catch-up and Digital Divide: A Study of Three Information Communication Technologies for 44 African Countries.

Information system has been at center of economic development in several developed countries, and as Africa envision to improve its global economic competitiveness it is important to assess penetration rate the digital divide and catch-up effect over the years. This paper examined whether there exists digital divide and if so, is it narrowing over time and whether the ICT is converging with time in the African countries. Three technologies namely mobile-cellular, internet and fixed broadband were used to measure the digital divide and the catch-up effect. Gamma and sigma convergence methodology together with averaged penetration ratios were used to assess the cross-country performance of each technology. This study confirms both the narrowing of digital divide and convergence of ICT in all three technologies for both total group and subgroups. The digital gap was narrowing over time and the low-income countries were catching up faster to the middle-income countries in all three technologies. However, there are marked differences exhibited in the speed of narrowing digital divide and the speed of convergence between the total groups and the subgroups of countries. Some policy implications were discussed in the conclusion and they can be utilized in designing developmental ICT policies in each technology case for individual countries.