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In relation to actual digital usage, empirical research is limited on whether digital technology promotes entrepreneurial development in African economies. This study, therefore, investigates the impact of digital technology usage on entrepreneurship in selected African countries. This study contributes to the literature by using 20 selected African countries over the period of 2012–2016. Unlike existing studies, this paper differentiates between the impact of business, government and individual usage of digital technology by employing the 6th, 7th and 8th pillars of the Network Readiness Index. The study employs panel least square and instrumental variable (IV) estimating techniques and panel corrected standard errors (PCSEs) to analyze the data. The results show that digital technology usage has a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurship in Africa. Further analysis shows that individual usage and business usage have a positive and significant impact on business creation. Social media network usage has a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurial development. The study suggests that the growth of entrepreneurship can be enhanced through an ICT usage enabling environment. Individual usage and business usage including social media usage of digitalization are the main drivers of entrepreneurial development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the rising resource exploration and mining openings, energy demand improvement is crucial for African sustainable development as it forms an integral part of public revenue. However, mining agglomeration benefits on energy productivity have been recognized in prior studies, yet empirical insights on Africa's mining sector remain unknown. This paper evaluates the impact of mining agglomeration on energy productivity in Africa using country-level data on 21 economies from 2009 to 2017. The study applied panel fixed effect model, and panel threshold fixed effect technique to estimate linear and nonlinear effects. Energy productivity is computed using Shephard energy distance function (SEDF). The findings suggest that mining agglomeration directly enhances energy productivity. Also, a nonlinear relationship exists between mining agglomeration and energy productivity. In particular, the positive impact of mining agglomeration only exists at a certain level of economic development. Further, on average, total Africa's mining energy productivity improved over the sample period, but performance differs among economic regions. The study findings support the view that policymakers should re-enforce, upgrade, and adopt innovative cluster development strategies and investor-friendly elements in regional mining codes. [Display omitted] • We evaluate the impact of mining agglomeration on energy productivity in Africa. • Mining agglomeration directly enhances energy productivity. • Nonlinear relationship exists between mining agglomeration and energy productivity. • The effect of agglomeration only exists at a certain level of economic development. • On average, energy productivity improved, but performance varies among economic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]