What is the digital divide and how can we minimise its effect on marginalised communities in Africa? Dudu Mbatha explores the challenges and opportunities.

Studies show that internet availability and the use of digital technologies lead to more and better jobs for lower-income, lower-skilled people, thus reducing poverty. However, Africa’s internet coverage still lags behind other regions—with digital divides in availability still an issue in remote and poorer areas in all countries.

Now that the crisis of Covid-19 has sped up the process of the world becoming more digitized, technology is currently facilitating the continuation of employment, education, and communication in a time of social isolation and government-enforced lockdowns to combat the spread of COVID-19. This has resulted in the challenges of the digital divide in Africa becoming more of an urgent matter.

The ‘digital gap’ is a term relating to unequal access to the distribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in societies, highlighted during COVID-19 as a global issue. On the African continent, though, it is considerably more pronounced.

Young people in Africa urgently need digital skills for employability, but many lack basic digital skills and access to a PC or data to connect with opportunities. To address this pressing issue, Digify Africa has created a Whatsapp bot called Lesedi.

Meet Lesedi

Lesedi is a WhatsApp bot created to help low-income young Africans improve their digital literacy and access work and training opportunities they might not have had access to before. Lesedi is an incredibly dynamic bot that provides quizzes and assessments and an immersive user experience that keeps learners engaged and motivated. All this is provided on a platform that is easily accessible and affordable for Africans all over the continent.