Female Economic Participation with Information and Communication Technology Advancement: Evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa

• Author: Simplice A. Asongu,Uchenna R. Efobi,Belmondo V. Tanankem
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/saje.12194
• Date: 01 June 2018

FEMALE ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION WITH

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

ADVANCEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

UCHENNA R.EFOBI *, BELMONDO V.TANANKEM

†

AND SIMPLICE A.ASONGU

‡

Abstract

This study complements existing literature by investigating how the advancement in information

and communication technology affects the formal economic participation of women. The focus

is on 48 African countries for the period 1990-2014. The empirical evidence is based on ordi-

nary least squares, fixed effects and the generalized method of moments regressions. The results

show that improving communication technology increases female economic participation with

the following consistent order of increasing magnitude: mobile phone penetration, internet pene-

tration and fixed broadband subscriptions. The findings are robust to the control for heterogene-

ities across countries. Policy implications are discussed in the paper.

JEL Classification: G20, I10, I32, O40, O55

Keywords: Africa, gender, ICT, inclusive development, technology

1. INTRODUCTION

Three main issues in policy and scholarly circles motivate this study, notably: the

high potential for information and communication technology (ICT) penetration

in Africa, the low participation of the female gender in the labour market and gaps

in the literature on the relevance of ICT in development outcomes. The three

points are substantiated in chronological order. First, in accordance with recent lit-

erature, compared to other regions of the world that are experiencing ICT satura-

tion, there is much room for ICT penetration in Africa (see Penard et al., 2012;

Tchamyou, 2017). Moreover, the growing literature on the use of ICT for inclusive

development is consistent with the position that policy makers in sub-Saharan

Africa (SSA) countries can leverage on the ICT potential to address development

policy (Ojo et al., 2012; Mishra and Bisht, 2013). However, the extent to which

ICT can improve the gender gap in economic participation is still to be substanti-

ated for policy implementation in SSA countries.

Second, the low participation of women in the labour market is well documented in

the literature. Women in SSA countries are mostly absorbed in the informal economic

sector, engage in smallholding farming and constitute the majority of the workforce in

unpaid household labour – such as home-based activities (FAO, 2011). Furthermore,

* Corresponding author: Researcher, School of Business, Covenant University, KM 10, Idir-

oko Road, Ota, Nigeria. E-mail: uche.efobi@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

†

Department of Analysis and Economic Policies, Ministry of Economy, Planning and

Regional Development – Cameroon

‡

Development Finance Centre, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town

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C2018 Economic Society of South Africa. doi: 10.1111/saje.12194

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of Economics

according to the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2016) and the World Bank

(2015), in SSA countries, the percentage of women in the informal sector is higher com-

pared to the same percentage for men.

1

This low economic participation of women is

obviously associated with negative welfare externalities. The poverty consequence of low

female participation in the labour market is most apparent in SSA because the sub-

region has registered the highest female poverty rate compared to other regions of the

world (Hazel, 2010). The narrative maintains that policies designed to improve female

economic participation in SSA will produce a dual externality in poverty reduction, nota-

bly, by improving the welfare of women and ameliorating structural distribution of

labour. Such policies (including ICT advancement) should also improve the competitive-

ness of women in the labour, capital and commodity markets. Yet, this claim also

requires empirical validation.

Third, a substantial bulk of the recent literature on the relevance of ICT in develop-

ment outcomes has failed to engage female economic participation. Accordingly, the

recent bulk of literature on the relationship between ICT and inclusive development has

largely focused on, inter alia: gender empowerment (Ojo et al., 2012); health access by

the population in the low income category (Kliner et al., 2013); the consolidation of

financial inclusion (Kirui et al., 2013; Mishra and Bisht, 2013; Asongu and Nwachukwu,

2016a); reduction of the rural-urban development gap and mitigation of wastes in the

agricultural sector by addressing mismatches/constraints in the demand for and supply of

commodities (Muto and Yamano, 2009); household management efficiency (Al Surikhi,

2012); consolidation of opportunities for small and medium-size businesses (Ondiege,

2010); development purposes (Kuada, 2015a) and social change (Gosavi, 2017;

Minkoua Nzie et al., 2017). Noticeably from the highlighted literature, scholarship on

the nexus between ICT and the participation of women in the labour market has not

received the attention it deserves.

This study unites these three issues by investigating how ICT (covered in the first

strand) can be leveraged to enhance female economic participation (engaged in the

second strand) in order to bridge the noticeable gap in the literature (highlighted in

the third strand). The policy relevance of the study also borders on the need for

inclusive development by means of enhanced female participation in the labour mar-

ket. Addressing this inequality is also relevant because SSA has been documented to

reflect the highest levels of gender and income inequalities (see, International

Monetary Fund, 2016). This tendency is consistent with a recent report by the World

Bank on achievements of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)’s extreme pov-

erty target which has revealed that poverty has been decreasing in all regions of the

world with the exception of SSA, where close to 50% of countries in the sub-region

were substantially off-track from achieving the MDG extreme poverty target

(Tchamyou, 2018). Furthermore, given that the sub-region has been enjoying more

than two decades of growth resurgence that began in the mid-1990s, it is apparent

that the underlying extreme poverty is the result of non-inclusive growth (Kuada,

2015b; Asongu and Nwachukwu, 2018; Tchamyou et al., 2018). The inference on

1

For instance, in Liberia, 65.4% of women are employed in the informal sector, compared to

33.4% of men.

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