Description
Although the very idea of a fourth industrial revolution is controversial, it is clear that there is a profound socio-technical transformation taking place, at different locations, at different paces, across the globe. One of the critical pillars of this transformation is the digital economy. For Africa, shifts in the global economy have many immense implications for democratic processes, social stability, as well as its international relations. A critical area that has the potential for empowerment, or entrenched exclusion, is digital identity. On paper, digital identity management has several advantages: better management of social safety nets, reduction of the phenomenon of ‘ghost workers’, and administration of intercontinental migration flows. This augurs well for the actualisation of the Continental Free Trade Area. However, this heady optimism ignores the genuine challenges that the continent face such as systemic difficulties in registering births – whether in analogue or digital; the inherent risk of the weaponising of digital information particularly in countries prone to xenophobia or tribalistic conflicts; and, lastly the question of who should control this data flows.
I consider whether or not adopting digital identity management systems is a panacea for Africa's developmental challenges.
