Kenya has been rated the fourth-fastest growing digital economy out of 60 developed and developing countries.
In its Digital Planet 2017 report, Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Business indicates Kenya’s digital economy momentum has potential to expand.
“This pace of digitalization, which we refer to as momentum, is a lead indicator of a country’s future digital potential and prospects,” says the report according to Business Daily.
It adds that in countries where digital economy is on high momentum, it is “highly attractive to investors”.
The report is a result of data compilation between 2008-2015 where China, Malaysia, and Bolivia have emerged as the leading digital economies in the survey carried out.
The advent of mobile money technology in Kenya, M-Pesa, set the ball rolling for the country.
M-Pesa has since midwifed other digital innovations that have gained traction internationally. They include Craft Silicon and Cellulant.
Morocco ranked 15th, Cameroon 18th, Nigeria 25th and South Africa 43rd in the survey.
Though Kenya has registered a high momentum in the digital economy, it still registers low development in its tech industry according to the researchers.
It ranked position 52 out of 60 nations surveyed for the evolution of their digital economy.
The research was pegged on four aspects: the level of innovation and change, the robustness of infrastructure, the ability and willingness of consumers to use digital technology; the legal and policy framework.
Together with other 16 countries from Asia and Latin America, Kenya was classified as a ““break out” country.
This means “[they are often] held back often by relatively weak infrastructure and poor institutional quality”.
If the issues are fixed, cites the report, these countries could reach the levels of China and Malaysia.
Highly developed countries such as Sweden, Denmark and South Korea were grouped as “stall out” countries, meaning they have reached their end and need to start digital re-invention.
But South Africa and Egypt were classified on the “watch out list” for poor digital economy performance.
By Pharis Kinyua. He’s an online Journalist and an author for Jamhuri News