In late February, consulting giant Accenture released the findings of a studyconducted on behalf of Google into the African tech ecosystem. Its conclusions are emphatic: the digital economy in Africa is rapidly expanding and it is only projected to grow further. The report currently estimates that around 522 million users benefit from the internet in Africa. This number is projected to rise by 11% in the next decade, which would grow the share of global internet surfers on the continent to around 16%.
The continents step-change towards digitalization is also starting to drive visible growth in investment. Between 2020 and 2021, venture capital on digital businesses in Africa reached over $3 billion and in just six years it has increased more than 10 times. Even governments have contributed to the growing online economy, with a significant portion of the 150 billion invested by the EU in the Global Gateway Africa initiative being earmarked for digital transformation.
While several analysts have highlighted the role of COVID-19 in accelerating the pace of digitalization, the rapid growth of internet-based industries appears to be a sustainable long-term trend. All the signs seem to suggest that the projected growth in the African digital economy could be a potential boon for the development of the entire continent.
When a rising tide does not lift all boats
Optimism surrounding a potential development dividend from Africas digital transformation is implicitly based on the logic that a rising tide lifts all boats: if the economy is thriving, then so should people. However, this has been rarely if ever – the case. This can be clearly seen in the context of Africas resources, which makes the continent perhaps the richest one on earth. Its people, however, remain the most impoverished.
The paradox of resource-rich countries unable to fully prosper is referred to as the resource curse. However, the curse has less to do with the resources than with the greed of those who control them. In most cases, corrupt actors rely on their monopoly over precious resources to divert the wealth away from ordinary people. Such was the fate of the Congo, where large reserves of cobalt – a highly valued mineral used to produce the lithium-ion batteries found in most electronic devices were allocated through corrupt practices and shady deals. Its no surprise then that Congo has failed to move out of the bottom places of the UN development rankings.
A digital déjà vu? AFRINICs stranglehold on Africas internet
What such experiences show is that when the greedy and corrupt have monopolistic control over valuable resources, the spoils rarely reach ordinary people. This also applies to the growing internet access across the continent a modern resource of sorts which could bring new riches to Africa. Yet the impressive growth of the continents digitalization can only be converted into widespread prosperity if those seeking to exert a stranglehold over the internet are kept at bay.
Unfortunately, a little-known organization called AFRINIC appears to be jostling for such control. As one of the five regional internet registries (RiRs) in the world, its fairly innocuous bureaucratic purpose is to distribute IP addresses indispensable to navigate the internet in Africa.
In its 20 years of operations, however, AFRINIC has distinguished itself by becoming a magnet for every type of scandal under the sun. After the organization was already embroiled in sexual harassment and racism controversies, a 2019 internal investigation revealed that the organizations co-founder, Ernest Byaruhanga, had embezzled 50 million dollars worth of IP addresses.
The subsequent hopes of sanitizing the registrys reputation were entrusted to Eddy Kayihura, who became Chief Executive Officer in 2019. After three years at the helm of the organization, however, it remains extremely questionable whether Eddy Kayihura has managed to bring the long-awaited changes to AFRINIC.
For starters, Kayihuras widely publicised commitment to overhaul the culture at AFRINIC has failed to come to pass. One need only look at the lack of any progress on the question of Byaruhangas apparent embezzlementa full three years after evidence was uncovered against the former CEO to realise that Kayihuras assurances failed to come to fruition.
But failing to make more than a half-hearted effort towards addressing the organisations internal problems has not been the only negative legacy of Kayihuras tenure. More insidiously, he has led attempts to mould what was intended to be a neutral register into an activist regulator with plenipotentiary powers. These ambitions came to light last year, when AFRINIC was taken to court over its threats to revoke the IP addresses previously allocated to firm Cloud Innovation.
The exit strategy: openness, competition, and oversight
Festering corruption and abuse of power in the registry in charge of African IP addresses should be a cause for major concern. It is, however, a situation that can be rectified if AFRINICs reach is rapidly curbed.
A possible way of doing so is through stronger regulatory oversight, which should discourage its current CEO Eddy Kayihura from attempting any further power grabs. Bringing overly powerful organisations to heel has already proven useful before in protecting Africas internet, such as when reforms to state monopolies over the internet service provider market enabled prices to go down for consumers.
In a recent interview given to France 24, the Chief Web Advocate of the World Wide Web Foundation, Nnennq Kwakama, reiterated the goal of ensuring Africas internet could be on a level footing in terms of power, resources and capacity with the global population.
A vital step towards achieving this goal is ensuring that access to this public good is not being controlled by unaccountable individuals or institutions with a history of corruption. Organizations such as AFRINIC, therefore, must be subjected to intense scrutiny to prevent them yet another opportunity to lift the whole of Africa.