Women, Youth, and the Future of Africa’s Digital Economy

Women, youth, and Africa’s digital economy are three terms whose relationship defines the continent’s economic future. Africa has the world’s youngest population and a significant gender gap in digital access and participation. Addressing both simultaneously—through deliberate policy, targeted programmes, and structural changes in how digital opportunities are distributed—is one of the most consequential governance tasks of the current generation.

The GSMA estimates that 300 million fewer women than men in low- and middle-income countries use mobile internet. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are 37% less likely than men to use mobile internet, and this gap has not closed significantly in recent years despite overall growth in internet access. Without deliberate intervention, economic growth in the digital economy will disproportionately benefit men—widening existing gender economic gaps rather than narrowing them.

The Gender Digital Divide: What Drives It and What Closes It

Structural Barriers

The gender digital divide is driven by a combination of structural factors: women’s lower average incomes limiting device and data affordability; social norms that restrict women’s access to and use of mobile technology in some communities; lower rates of digital literacy among women relative to men; and underrepresentation of women in technology education and careers. Each factor requires a distinct intervention.

What Works

Evidence-based interventions that have closed the gender digital divide in various African contexts include: subsidised device access programmes specifically targeting women; digital skills training delivered in community settings accessible to women; mentoring programmes that connect women in technology with younger women entering the field; school-based STEM programmes that reach girls at a formative age; and mobile money adoption programmes that start with financial use cases that are immediately relevant to women’s economic lives.

Youth and the Digital Economy

Africa’s youth dividend—the potential economic benefit of its large and growing young working-age population—can only be realised if young Africans can participate in the digital economy. This requires not just access and skills but meaningful pathways: from training to employment, from employment to entrepreneurship, from entrepreneurship to growth companies that create jobs for others.

Niger State’s investment in youth digital skills through NSITDEA—free training, Microsoft certification vouchers, entrepreneurship support—reflects an understanding that youth digital empowerment is not a social programme. It is an economic development strategy with measurable returns for the state economy.

Key Takeaways

• The gender digital divide in Africa is significant and persistent—requiring deliberate, targeted intervention rather than assuming it will close automatically with general digital growth.
• Subsidised device access, community-based skills training, mentoring, and school STEM programmes are the evidence-based interventions that work for women’s digital inclusion.
• Africa’s youth dividend can only be realised if young Africans have meaningful pathways into and through the digital economy.
• Women and youth digital inclusion are economic development imperatives, not just social equity goals.
• Policies that address the specific barriers facing each group produce better outcomes than generic digital inclusion programmes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are women less likely to use mobile internet in Africa than men?

A combination of lower income (making device and data costs less affordable), social norms in some communities that restrict women’s mobile access, lower average digital literacy, and the historical absence of digital content and services specifically relevant to women’s lives and economic activities.

How can African governments measure progress on gender digital inclusion?

Through sex-disaggregated data on internet use, device ownership, digital skills attainment, and digital economy participation. The ITU Gender ICT Data Initiative provides methodology. National statistical agencies should embed gender disaggregation in all digital economy surveys as a baseline requirement.

About the Author

Suleiman Isah is the Director General of NSITDEA and a champion of inclusive digital economy development in Niger State and across Nigeria. Read more.

Related: Digital Inclusion Pillar Page | Niger State Digital Transformation