Low and lower-middle income countries, including Nigeria, have lost an estimated $1 trillion in gross domestic profit (GDP) in the last ten years as a result of barriers preventing women from accessing the internet and participating online, a study conducted by the World Wide Web Foundation and the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), shows.
The study also shows the digital gender gap, which is the difference between the number of women and men who can access the internet thereby affecting economic output across 32 countries.
According to the report, the digital gender gap cost these economies a total of $126 billion in 2020. This represents a loss of almost $24 billion in tax revenues, funds that could be used to invest in education, health, and infrastructure programmes.
These findings underline an urgent need to tackle barriers to digital access so that everyone is able to participate in the digital economy. Globally, men are 21 percent more likely to be online than women, rising to 52 percent in less developed countries.
In the 32 countries studied including Nigeria, the gender gap has barely improved since 2011, dropping just half a percentage point from 30.9 to 30.4 percent.
Few governments are seen implementing specific policies designed to remove a range of barriers that prevent women from using the internet. These barriers include the affordability of data and devices, gaps in education and digital skills, social pressures discouraging women using the internet, and fears about online privacy, safety, and security.
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“Closing the digital gender gap is not just a moral cause, it is also an economic imperative. As the internet becomes a more potent enabler for education, business, and community mobilisation, a failure to deliver access for all means failing to realise everyone’s potential to contribute. Governments that enable women to fully participate in the digital revolution will unlock a wealth of creativity and productivity,” Web Foundation Director of Research, Catherine Adeya,said.
The report estimates that closing the digital gender gap would add an estimated $524 billion in economic activity over the next five years. By investing to enable more women to use the internet and participate in the digital economy, governments have a substantial opportunity to generate economic growth.
In focus groups and interviews commissioned for the report, women talked about the ways internet access opened up opportunities. One participant talked about how she was able to expand her floriculture business nationally, using the internet to reach customers beyond her community.
Idjatou Diallo, a food business owner in Côte d’Ivoire was able to save her restaurant during the Covid-19 pandemic by selling food online. In India, career coach Swati Lodh Kundu used the internet to find clients in other countries and continents to increase her income.
To promote a more inclusive digital economy, the report encourages governments to look holistically at the barriers that impede women’s and girls’ access to the internet.
It also urges them to develop comprehensive broadband strategies that include infrastructure investment, transparent policy targets, and programmes to deliver digital skills and literacy training, promote women’s and girls’ rights, and address safety and privacy concerns.
