Geographies in Depth

Africa's digital platforms boomed during the pandemic - and could be here to stay

Chao Tayiana, a digital historian, and her grandfather Daniel Sindiyo, whose mother was in the British detention camps of the pre-independence Mau Mau rebellion, look at the reconstructed 3D models of the detention camps, during a Reuters interview in Ngong, outside Nairobi, Kenya June 29, 2020. Picture taken June 29, 2020. REUTERS/Edwin Waita - RC2OPH95W4WR

Image: REUTERS/Edwin Waita

Yinka Adegoke
Africa editor , Quartz
  • Digital services have proved invaluable during the pandemic in Africa.
  • In Togo, the government launched a social welfare program, using digital cash transfers to help informal workers whose livelihoods were disrupted by the lockdown.
  • It's hoped that the success of these schemes could usher in a new digital era across the continent.

Back in April, Togo launched a social welfare program using digital cash transfers as the government tried to help informal workers whose livelihoods had been disrupted by the pandemic and the accompanying lockdown. The Novissi program, which was launched on April 8, signed up more than 1 million citizens in its first week. Up to 65% of the eligible beneficiaries were women.

The initial campaign ended on June 6 after the west African country eased lockdowns that had been in place in capital city Lomé and central Togo. Now the government has reoriented Novissi for implementation in regions where a curfew is imposed after a spike in Covid-19 cases. Most recently, it reintroduced the cash transfer program in Soudou, about 250 miles north of Lomé. Within two weeks, up to 85% of the adult population in the area, around 6,000 people, had received cash transfers.

Have you read?

Since March, according to the World Bank’s database, up to 200 countries and territories have planned or put in place more than 1,000 social protection measures, including new or scaled-up Covid-19 social assistance in the form of cash transfers that now reach nearly 1.1 billion beneficiaries.

While Togo’s mobile-based digital program stood out early on, the country was not alone in Africa in providing social welfare relief for its citizens. More than 40 African nations have introduced or expanded social welfare programs since the pandemic, according to data compiled by the Milken Institute’s Covid-19 Africa Watch. So far, 36 African countries have offered cash transfers to eligible citizens (the requirements vary) while around 15 countries provide food assistance. A few offer both.

These programs are particularly vital in African countries whose economies are dominated by the informal sector, where large sections of the adult population earn their living from day-to-day transactions and informal employment. Even once curfews have been eased, the after-effects of lockdown leave few significant opportunities to earn a living in many of these countries, particularly in the urban areas.

A shift for social welfare

Outside of emergencies and conflicts, few of these countries had substantial social welfare programs in place before Covid-19. In some of them, the pandemic has shifted thinking about social welfare such that approaches to it may change long-term.

The technology helps. Digital tools are being used to overcome some of the biggest cash-transfer challenges for developing countries, particularly with communications, recruiting new citizens, digital ID, screening for eligibility, and delivering payments. Togo’s government, for example, says its long-term goal is to expand on the Novissi platform and methodology to deliver other social safety net programs digitally.

A new policy paper (pdf) from the Center for Global Development in Washington DC focuses on the role of digital technology in enabling efficient “G2P” (government to person) social assistance. It shows how the challenges facing developing countries during the pandemic have forced them to seriously consider the benefits of cash-transfer programs for the first time. The authors point out that digital technology can help reduce the cost of running such programs and that countries which have already enabled investment in digital infrastructure and financial services will see more immediate benefits.

Africa Digital Communications The Digital Transformation of Business
The pandemic has shifted thinking about social welfare. Image: World Bank

“The Covid-19 period will undoubtedly spur further use of digital mechanisms to deliver social protection,” write CGD’s Alan Gleb and Anit Mukherjee. “Our review suggests that an important objective for policymakers in the post-Covid period will be to build on the capabilities developed during the crisis to strengthen sustainable social protection and payment systems that are both inclusive and effective, in particular addressing the challenges faced by women, who are often digitally disadvantaged.”

Loading...
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Digital Communications

Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Digital Communications is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Americans went to the polls. Here’s how US presidential election works

Spencer Feingold

November 6, 2024

Sustainable trade could be an opportunity for Indonesia. Here’s how

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum