Africa’s potential for digital trade has been overlooked for years. Instead, its 1.2 billion people are perceived as a source of commodities and an export market for finished goods. This is now rapidly changing with geopolitics becoming more prominent in industry development.

This paper, authored by Michael Mudd, provides an insight into how Africa’s potential for digital trade has been overlooked and how geopolitical rivalries play out in Africa’s digital transformation.

About the author. Michael Mudd is a digital trade economist and the founder and Managing Partner of APP LP, an advisory providing opinion and insight into policy, knowledge management, data security and digital transformation for trade in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. An appointed IT standards expert to JTC-1 of the ISO, he is also a member of the Government of Hong Kong’s Expert Group on Cloud Computing; working group on Cloud security and privacy. He is a member of the policy committee of the Hong Kong Computer Society and is the Chairman of the Public Policy Working Group of the Middle East & North Africa Cloud Alliance and Senior Digital Trade Adviser to International Economics Consulting Ltd. He may be contacted at asiapolicypartners@outlook.com.