What going digital means for Cleanleap countries

If we just look at Africa, we can see the benefits of the a digital economy.  oAfrica did a nice job summarising the growth potential of the next 10 years as analyzed in this report from McKinsey.  

Internet in Africa (Today)

• 16% internet penetration
• 167 million internet users
• 67 million smartphones
• >50% of urban residents are online (ranges from 43-72%)
• 51.6 million Facebook users
• $18 billion internet contribution to GDP

Internet in Africa (2025)

• 50% internet penetration
• 600 million internet users
• 360 million smartphones
• $75 billion in annual e-commerce sales
• $300 billion internet contribution to GDP

The jump predicted in the next ten years is even sharper and will yield benefits for a number of industries: finance with mobile and online wallets, education through improved content and distribution methods such as e-Books, improvements to remote healthcare, increased retail, better management of agricultural processes and improved e-Government services.  As shown in the report though its not just about connectivity.  Some countries - like Senegal and Kenya - are doing a much better job at taking advantage of the benefits of the internet at this stage.In terms of the situation today, looking at a summary level doesn’t tell the whole story of how bad things are in some places.   20 countries have internet connectivity rates of less than 4%.  17 of those countries are in Africa and 3 are in Asia.   That said, there is a precedence of rapid improvement - only 2% of Africans were online in 2005.

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