Key Issues and Areas of Cooperation in Africa At the Current Stage of Digital Economy Development

Abstract

Much attention is paid to the development of the digital economy around the world today. African countries, realizing the importance of digital technologies for the region, do not stand aside. The purpose of this research is to identify key problems and challenges in the digital industry of African countries and directions of cooperation between these countries and Russia. Deductive analysis, statistical analysis, and comparative analysis were used as the main research methods. The key challenges on the way to development of the digital economy on the African continent were identified in order to summarize the current state and analyze the prospects for development. Among these problems there are the low level of digital technology development and the limited Internet infrastructure, the lack of standards for working with data, problems with the lack of documents, and the gender gap in the use of digital technologies. Based on the analysis, it was revealed that cooperation between Russia and Africa is possible in the areas of knowledge exchange, e-government development, and the supply of IT goods and services.