From Digital Divides to Digital Dividends: Embracing Basic Services in Zimbabwe's Digitalisation Agenda

Introduction

Digital technologies have become a prominent need in the lives of people more recently, with the use of the internet twisting to be one of the daily basic needs (Wiraniskalaa & Sujarwoto, 2020). United Nations strained more on the significance of the internet in resolving the current global socio-economic challenges (UN, 2015). The use of the internet is increasing day by day, slowly but steadily. According to Hootsuite and We Are Social 2019 annual report, the number of people using the internet in early 2019 was 4.388 billion, whilst 3.484 billion were active social media users globally (Kemp, 2019). The number of people using it is increasing daily from the young to the old ages as it increases choices and brings convenience in many aspects of life. The use of digital technologies continues to revolutionize people's lives and empower them. Access to the internet is turning people into entrepreneurs apart from transmitting information and entertaining them. It has created a virtual community using social media accelerated by the greater use of the internet worldwide (ibid). People have managed to cross social, political, and economic barriers, and the internet brings them together like never before. The World Summit on Information Society of 2003 held in Geneva, Switzerland projected the hope that the world would have universal access to the internet and be linked via Information Communication Technology (ICTs) by 2015 (Vidyasagar, 2006).

The wide gap between developed and developing countries has been a major concern on internet connectivity around the Globe. Vidyasagar, (2006) acknowledged the continued existence of the digital divide in developing countries and among the poor who live in developed countries. He termed the existence of this gap the digital divide. The concept materialized in the 1990s, describing the existence of inequalities in accessing Information Communication Technology (ICT) (Ragnedda, 2019). According to OECD (2018), the digital divide is weighed on a nation's ability to access ICTs and its citizens' capabilities to use the technologies due to variations in race, economic status, gender, and location. The 2^nd meeting of the World Summit on Information Society held in 2005 in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia concentrated on bridging the digital divide. Citizens of rich countries benefit from digital technologies through internet connectivity, while those in developing countries lag. Bukht and Heeks (2017) note a disparity in the digital economy between the global north and the global south countries. Ragnedda (2019, p.27) noted that the digital gap among citizens or countries is created by socio-demographic variables that influence ICT access, such as “…employment status, income, education level, geographic location, ethnicity, age, gender, and family structure.” These factors have not been fully studied in Zimbabwe, thereby creating a gap in the literature on how to bridge the digital gap to yield digital dividends successfully.