A Snapshot of the State of the Digital Economy Readiness and STI Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa

The world has been recovering from the impact of COVID-19 and recent global destabilized economies and Africa is no exception. It has been projected that an estimated 30 million Africans got pushed into extreme poverty while in the same latitude, Africa expects another estimate of 39 million the continent's population possibly falling into poverty in 2021. While most conventional job markets got hit massively to the extent that some have been unable to recover, the digital job market remained resilient during these instabilities. This makes this study very timely and very relevant to the extent that it will provide a snapshot of where Africa stands in terms of digital economy readiness and STI infrastructure. We adopted an exploratory study approach by conducting a systematic desktop review. The data and document review were conducted from information, statistical data, and bibliography data from institutions that are well-versed with the subject matter to get deeper and recent insights. Key data and information sources came from the World Bank, IMF, AFDB, Data repository institutions with a wide audience, long-time experience in data gathering and synthesis, and methodological approaches that proved to be reliable such as GSMA, DataReportal, CIA, etc., and government published documents. The study makes concrete recommendations for practice and policy interventions to enhance talent, responsive STI infrastructure, internet access, and promote STEM among the marginalized demography among other recommendations