Is information and communication technology a driver of industrialization process in African countries?

This study investigates how information and communication technology affects industrialization process in 46 African countries over the period 2000-2015. Two information and communication technology indicators (consisting of internet penetration and Mobile phone penetration), and two industrialization indicators (entailing manufacturing value added and employment in industry) are used. The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squared (OLS), fixed effects (FE) and system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results show that ICT has a positive and significant effect on industrialization in African countries, even if this effect is tiny.