While Africa's future hinges on its embrace of technology, particularly in terms of providing fast, dependable, and inexpensive internet connection, many African governments are quick to turn off the internet when it serves them well.


Nearly half of African countries have suffered an internet blackout in the last four years.

The shutdowns have always occurred during wars or elections, when incumbent governments have blocked internet access to political information.

This has had a negative impact on the African economy as a whole, which is remains at the bottom of the global digital economy. Thousands of hours have been lost by firms that operate online via e-commerce and social commerce, resulting in billions of dollars in lost revenue. Internet and social media outages cost the continent more than $2 billion in 2019.

According to British tech research firm Comparitech, Ethiopians lost a total of 3,657 hours, costing the country $100 million. The first one occurred in Western Oromia from January to June 2020, costing the country $100 million.

Another one began in November 2020 in the Tigray area with the outbreak of hostilities and lasted until December 15, when some services were restored.

According to Welsh VPN business Top10VPN, Nigeria's Twitter ban lasted from June 5, 2021, to January 13, 2022, affecting about 104.4 million internet users and costing the government $367 million.

According to Comparitech, Uganda's 'Pearl of Africa' lost $10 million in company income in 30 days during the 2020 presidential election. The government went ahead and arrested anyone who attempted to use virtual private networks to access social media (VPNs). A social media tax is also in force in the country.

Tanzania, whose government has been restricting media freedom since 2015, experienced a 1,584-hour internet blackout in 2020, costing nearly $600 million.

According to a Top10VPN survey from 2019, a total of 12 African nations turned off internet access, resulting in a $2 billion loss. Sudan, Algeria, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Egypt, Benin, Gabon, Eritrea, and Liberia were among them.

In 2020, Zimbabwe, Togo, Burundi, Chad, Mali, and Guinea all imposed internet or social media restrictions.

According to Access Now, an independent monitoring group, there were 25 verified incidents of partial or entire internet shutdowns in 2019, compared to 20 in 2018 and 12 in 2017.

Sudanese authorities cut off internet connection for 68 days in 2018 to put down demonstrations that resulted in a military takeover the following year. Sudan experienced a 36-day "more comprehensive mobile internet blackout" in June and July of 2019. It lost $2 billion in all.

In the Republic of Congo, internet and social media access was interrupted hours before the general election on March 21, 2021.

Kenya distanced itself from a US designation as one of 60 signatories to an accord prohibiting countries from shutting down the internet at will in April 2022.

The only African nations on the US-led "Declaration for the Future of the Internet" (DFI) list were Kenya, Cape Verde, Niger, and Senegal.

The DFI also pledges that member nations will not use the internet to undermine electoral infrastructure or sway election results.