Globally, digital economy is increasingly becoming a critical driver of the economy with trends showing a steady increase in its contribution towards the global and individual national economies all over the World. In 2016, the digital economy accounted for 15.5% of the global GDP, and is projected to reach 25% by 2026. In Africa, the digital economy is projected to contribute about 5.2% of GDP by 2025, with countries like Kenya expecting the digital economy to contribute 9.24%. As a result, several African countries are striving to put in place policies, legal framework, strategies and plans as well as infrastructure to help drive the digital economy and maximize the expected benefits. Furthermore, the impact of Covid-19 pandemic just re-emphasised the importance of the digital economy, which currently is seen as key to post Covid-19 economic recovery.
The programme aims to enhance the development, deployment and adoption of responsible digital technologies for sustainable and inclusive development in Africa through capacity building, policy research and technology brokerage. To unlock the potential of state-of-the-art digital technologies – such as 4th industrial revolution technologies for driving the economies of African countries – the programme focuses on conducting policy research in digital solutions; strengthening post-graduate training and research in responsible digital technologies; promoting uptake and deployment of digital technologies; and building the required human resource capacity in this field.
