For one, Africa’s Fourth Industrial Revolution depends on technology, thanks to the continent’s digital-savvy young population and massive potential for growth. Africa’s internet economy, for instance, is projected to hit $180 billion by 2025. However, the continent has a worrisome history of government-directed internet shutdowns, which is said to be the default move by African leaders to assert control or stifle free speech.
An internet shutdown is defined as “an intentional disruption of Internet-based communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unavailable, for a specific population, location, or mode of access, often to exert control over the flow of information.”
In Africa, internet shutdowns are increasingly becoming a political tool, as many African governments have resorted to restricting internet access during upheavals, especially protests or large-scale unrest.
Internet shutdowns in Africa come with a high cost
The first internet shutdown in sub-Saharan Africa was in Guinea in 2007. Former Guinean president Lansana Conte shut down the four Internet Service Providers in the country in the wake of national protests calling for his resignation.
Thirteen years later, African leaders, driven by different motives, have continued to hit the internet kill switch on different occasions, albeit with some consequences. The economic costs of shutdowns are enormous. In 2019, a report by Welsh VPN company Top10VPN indicated that 12 African governments; Sudan, Algeria, Chad, DRC, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Egypt, Benin, Gabon, Eritrea, and Liberia shut down internet services, leading to a combined a loss of $2 billion
To put into context, Sudan’s 185-day-long internet shutdown cost the country an estimated $1.9 billion in 2019, roughly 7.3% of its 2020 GDP and almost 80% of the total economic cost African economies suffered from restricting internet access in the same year.
Internet shutdowns have more than doubled in Africa between 2020 and 2021, from 12 reported service disruptions to 25 respectively. For context, in 2020, Chad had the most prolonged shutdown, with WhatsApp being blocked for 3,912 hours at a total cost of more than $20 million. The same year, Tanzania’s internet blackout lasted 1,584 hours, costing the country over $600 million.
In 2021, twelve countries shut down the internet at least 19 times in Africa: Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. For instance, Nigeria’s seven-month Twitter ban – which affected around 104.4 million internet users – cost the country more than $367 million, per data from Top10VPN.
But despite the economic costs of internet shutdowns, African governments appear unmoved. In April this year, Kenya distanced itself from U.S. listing among 60 signatories to an agreement prohibiting members from arbitrarily shutting down the internet.
Enough of internet shutdowns
Going forward, African leaders must learn to sheath their swords and stop killing the switch. This is arguably the best thing to do in the continent’s interest. Internet shutdowns stifle digital connectivity and send the wrong signals to potential investors.
“In Africa, similarly across the globe, the internet shutdowns documented in 2022 have left severe impacts on the lives of those affected. The human cost of internet shutdowns is not quantifiable as they crush people’s dreams and disrupt all aspects of people’s lives,” Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn Campaign Manager at Access Now, an independent monitoring group, told Technext in a statement.
