Working Paper

ICTs and Industrial Development: Transformation and Employment Generation

“The paper is organized as follows: In the section that follows we provide a brief background on the status of ICTs in Africa albeit partially. Africa is largely disconnected from global markets due in large to the digital inequality that affects Africa more than other regions of the
world. To this end we present a short discussion of digital inequality in the section that follows because this has implications for industrial development. This is followed by the impact of ICTs on industrial production and the way sectoral differences are marked by ICTs. We then take up the issue of ICT infrastructure followed by the skills, employment, and export impacts of ICTs. The final two sections take up the role of national policies and conclude with a proposed methodology.”