Digitalization and Government Response to COVID-19 in post-pandemic in Africa

Abstract

The relevance of digital technology has increased globally, especially during
and after the Covid-19 outbreak. However, digitalisation in Africa is still
under the development process whereby the majority of African countries are
adjusting and adapting to digitalization. The lack of technological
advancement in Africa poses a serious delay to the adoption of digitalization.
This study aims to assess the digitalisation and government response to
COVID-19 during the post-pandemic era in Africa. This study was done
qualitatively as a desktop study. Therefore, this study used a secondary
research approach where books, journal articles, and newspapers were
employed to collect data. A key finding of this paper is that the majority of
African countries are still struggling to adapt to digital technologies because
of the lack of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) materials but slowly but
surely they are adopting digitalization. As digital transformation is essential
for survival, businesses and institutions have increased their investments in
technological breakthroughs. This study concludes that the introduction of
digitalization in Africa was the best solution to curb the spread of COVID19. Africa is still behind in digitalization, although it has a long history with
technology. Africa has proven to be resilient, and its nations are catching up
in embracing global digitization. The study recommends that digitalization in
Africa in response to the pandemic must be adopted for future outbreaks.
African countries must continue adopting digitalization because people now
prefer to use the 4IR method.