Publication: State-Owned Enterprises in Digital Infrastructure and Downstream Digital Markets in Africa
Loading...
Date
2024-05-28
ISSN
Published
2024-05-28
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This technical background paper delves into the role and importance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) within Africa's digital economy, along with the potential risks they pose to competition and market dynamics. Drawing upon new data on selected SOEs, the analysis focuses on the presence of SOEs and the competitive landscape within digital infrastructure, mobile, wireless, international calling, and data markets. While the policy and regulatory framework have progressed towards fostering more open markets, various aspects remain on the policy agenda. Governments stand to benefit from reassessing the policy and regulatory frameworks governing SOE operations and determining the most effective means to establish and uphold a level playing field for all market participants, be they public or private entities.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2024. State-Owned Enterprises in Digital Infrastructure and Downstream Digital Markets in Africa. Governance and the Digital Economy in Africa Technical Background Paper Series. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41606 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Corporate Governance and Transparency of State-Owned and State-Linked Digital Enterprises in Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-28)This technical background paper sheds light on the corporate governance challenges faced by enterprises with national state shareholdings, specifically State-owned and State-linked Enterprises (SOE-SLEs), operating within Africa's digital sector. State participation in digital infrastructure and services remains widespread in Africa with more than 160 State-owned and state-linked enterprises (SOE-SLEs). Analysis of 44 digital companies with state participation from 18 countries reveals a need to improve corporate governance frameworks and practices to better fit best international practices in line with their national requirements. Moreover, a significant portion of the reviewed companies, out of the 162 identified, lacks transparency in disclosing non-financial information about their management, policies, and corporate governance structures. Alarmingly, less than a fifth of these companies publish their annual reports or financial statements on their websites, underscoring the imperative for improved transparency and accountability measures within Africa's state-owned and state-linked digital enterprises.Publication Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in the MENA Region(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-22)This report is part of a World Bank review of state-owned enterprise (SOE) governance practices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The focus on governance is motivated by research pointing to good governance as an important precondition for successful and sustainable SOE reform. This report summarizes findings of six SOE governance reviews of Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and Tunisia, while also drawing on other regional studies. The six country reports, as well as this cross-cutting report, concentrate on the core dimensions of corporate governance of SOEs as identified in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Corporate Governance of SOEs, and the World Bank’s Integrated SOE Framework (iSOEF). These include: (i) the legal and regulatory framework for corporate governance; (ii) state ownership arrangements; (iii) performance management frameworks; (iv) Board structures and functioning; (v) financial reporting, accountability, control, and transparency; (vi) procurement policies and practices; and (vii) climate change reporting practices. The report also provides an overview of the SOE landscape in terms of the size, composition, employment, subsidies, and financial risks of the SOE sectors.Publication Competition Advocacy for Digital Markets in Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-28)This technical background paper provides insights on entry points for competition authorities in Africa to increase competition advocacy activities to improve the conditions of competition in digital markets and digital infrastructure. In Africa, there are various opportunities for policymakers at the national and regional levels to enhance competition advocacy efforts and promote competition issues in digital infrastructure and digital markets. These include regulatory advice and opinions on current or draft laws and regulations, market studies or inquiries, awareness raising and capacity building, and collaboration between competition authorities and telecommunications regulators, or any other government agency with powers over digital markets, at the national and regional levels.Publication Taxes and Parafiscal Fees on Digital Infrastructure Services in Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-30)This technical background paper evaluates the progress of African nations in establishing effective fiscal frameworks for digital infrastructure across the continent. Through a comprehensive comparative analysis of legislative, tax, and regulatory policies in over 20 African countries, the report synthesizes insights on the status and trends of telecom taxes and parafiscal fees, aiming to inform policy recommendations. The assessment reveals a notable wide range of approaches to taxing the sector, resulting in the application of additional taxes compared to other economic activities and a complex array of taxes and parafiscal fees that are not always aligned with tax principles and public administration principles. Taxes discriminate among economic activities; some are regressive, and others are difficult to administer. Parafiscal fees are not proportionate to the cost of providing the service or are not used as a mechanism to boost the sector's efficiency or achieve specific sector goals. Compared to levels observed in other sectors and regions, a high tax burden on telecom operators and telecom consumers characterizes the African telecom landscape. Establishing a clear revenue strategy that coherently links tax policy with tax administration is crucial for supporting economic transformation and the growth of the digital economy in Africa.Publication Regulating Digital Data in Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-28)This technical background paper provides an overview of data governance frameworks in Africa and explores links with public trust and an enabling environment for greater participation in the digital economy. It exploits data from the Global Data Regulation Diagnostic (GDRD) which collected information on data regulations across 80 countries globally, including 24 Sub-Saharan African countries and three North African countries. Additional information for selected countries was collected by February 2022 through desk research and interviews to understand challenges in the implementation of rules captured by the GDRD. While national and regional data governance frameworks have progressed, there are still challenges in their design and implementation. A robust data governance environment is of great importance for Africa to ride the current wave of digital technology advances and to reap digital dividends while avoiding the inherent risks.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication A Blue Transformation for Pacific Maritime Transport: Overarching Regional Transport(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-06-29)This report has eight chapters. Following the introduction (Pacific Peoples and the Sea), the next six chapters each focus on a separate significant component of Pacific maritime transport, analyzing the major influences and challenges, and, where relevant, key areas for future attention. The topics are: international shipping, gateway ports, domestic maritime transport, four related sectors, cruise ship tourism, tuna fisheries, fossil fuel imports, and bulk shipping, natural disasters and climate resilience, and sector governance and institutions. The final chapter, transforming pacific maritime transport, ways forward, distils the report’s findings into the most significant and far-reaching opportunities to transform maritime transport in the Pacific. These are grouped into three broad themes, infrastructure, services, and governance and capacity building. Ways Forward comes at the end and, for readers unable to view the whole report, is a good place to begin. The rest of this executive summary explains why the Pacific is a special case for investment and provides a summary of the main chapters and findings. But first, it describes which Pacific Island countries contributed to the study.Publication Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12)World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.Publication Demographic Change and Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-11)Demographic change can be a positive contributor to development at any stage of demographic transition. This paper revisits the literature on the determinants and economic impacts of demographic change, and presents a new global typology that classifies countries into four categories based on demographic characteristics and future development potential. In the first group are high-fertility, low-income countries that are lagging in many human development indicators. In the second group are mostly low- and lower-middle-income countries where fertility rates have started falling recently and where changes in age structure offer tremendous opportunity for growth in the near future. The third group comprises mostly upper-middle-income countries that experienced rapid fertility declines in the 1960s, and where working age people will be a shrinking share of the population in the coming decade. The last group is made up of mostly high-income countries that have some of the highest shares of elderly in the world, and below-replacement fertility rates since at least the 1980s. The typology helps identify development policy priorities for countries in different stages of demographic transition, and opportunities through globalization due to demographic differences between countries.Publication Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.Publication Economic Recovery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06)World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.