ICT Capacity as the Investment and Use of ICT: Exploring its Antecedents in Africa

In this paper, we investigate the extent to which economic, human development endowment, political, and population conditions influence information and communication technology (ICT) capacity in African nations using ordinary least squares. We use five variables to measure ICT capacity: ICT expenditure as a percent of GDP (ICTE), ICT expenditure per capita in US dollars (ICTEP), investment in telecoms with private participation (INVTE), Internet users per 100 people (INTUS), and mobile phone subscribers per 1000 people (MOBPS). Unlike ICT adoption and diffusion that focuses on the use of ICT, ICT capacity measures public and private investments in ICT and the use of ICT. The results indicate that ICT capacity of a nation increases with increased (high) corruption index. Further, ICT investment by the private sector depends mainly on human development factors and is not influenced by the perceptions of corruption about a nation. We present theoretical and practical implications of the findings for developing nations in general and African nations in particular.