Keypoints:
- Shutdowns damage SMEs, trade, and trust
- Courts affirm digital rights across Africa
- Internet access is vital infrastructure
IN today’s digitally driven Africa, pulling the plug on the internet no longer simply silences voices—it chokes economies, disrupts trade, and undermines years of investment in inclusive digital growth. From West to East Africa, governments are increasingly resorting to internet shutdowns—intentional disruptions of digital networks to control information flows, often during elections, protests or national emergencies.
Yet while these actions may serve short-term political aims, their long-term damage is undeniable. Shutdowns cripple e-commerce, stall cross-border payments, paralyse mobile money systems, and cut off small and informal businesses that rely on platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and mobile apps to earn a living. Across a continent where mobile connectivity is often the only bridge to economic participation, these blackouts amount to digital and financial disenfranchisement.
Africa’s digital economy is surging—but fragile
Africa’s digital ecosystem is one of the fastest-growing in the world. By 2025, over 500 million people will shop online, and by 2032, the e-commerce sector is forecast to hit $940bn. At the same time, digital service exports are expected to reach $74bn by 2040, while cross-border payments could top $1tn by 2035.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is designed to accelerate this momentum by promoting digital trade and connectivity across national borders. But these gains are fragile. The heartbeat of this economy is connectivity. Remove it—and the entire system stalls.
Millions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many operating informally, use the internet to process orders, accept payments and market their goods. From Kinshasa’s open-air markets to Lagos’s thriving tech hubs, the internet has become the backbone of economic survival. When it disappears, so does their income.
When the web goes dark, the economy dims
Internet shutdowns affect every layer of Africa’s economy. One of the hardest-hit sectors is e-commerce, where transactions rely on real-time connectivity. Inventory systems break down, payment gateways fail, and logistics become tangled.
Even brick-and-mortar businesses suffer. Many now depend on cloud-based inventory platforms or internet-connected point-of-sale systems. When the internet is cut, transactions stop, customers leave, and businesses bleed cash.
In the financial sector, the impact is just as severe. Mobile money, a financial lifeline for millions, becomes inaccessible. Banks go offline. Cross-border logistics stall. Supply chains snap. The ripple effect paralyses both urban and rural economies, from fintech startups in Accra to informal traders in Ouagadougou.
Trust, investment and innovation all take a hit
The economic costs of shutdowns go beyond GDP. The deeper and often more lasting damage lies in public trust and investor confidence.
When governments use the internet as a lever of control, people start to question the reliability of digital tools. That distrust spills over into vital sectors like healthcare, education and finance. Digital literacy rates stagnate. Online service adoption slows. And innovation grinds to a halt.
Shutdowns also create regulatory uncertainty. For investors considering African markets—especially in fintech, e-commerce, cloud services and data infrastructure—unpr
edictable blackouts signal risk. This raises capital costs and often diverts investment to more stable markets.
Worse still, repeated shutdowns risk deepening digital poverty. Each time connectivity is lost, people lose access to information, education and opportunity. Young people, women entrepreneurs and rural communities suffer most. The gap between those with access and those without grows wider—undermining efforts toward inclusive growth and gender equity.
The hidden cost: a fractured innovation ecosystem
Africa’s innovation ecosystem thrives on connectivity. Collaboration between startups, researchers, investors and tech hubs often takes place in the cloud—through real-time platforms, online workspaces and cross-border conferences. When the internet is shut down, that creative ecosystem is interrupted, stifling idea exchange and slowing progress.
Even educational institutions and remote learning platforms suffer. Universities, coding academies and online vocational training centres are forced offline. The long-term cost? An under-skilled workforce, a stunted tech sector, and reduced global competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
How much are shutdowns really costing us?
Calculating the exact economic loss from a shutdown isn’t easy, but models like the Internet Society’s NetLoss Calculator offer a reliable benchmark. The tool estimates financial losses from intentional, technically verifiable internet disruptions.
In some countries, even a 24-hour shutdown can
result in millions of dollars in losses—a cost many fragile economies can scarcely afford. These figures don’t even account for secondary effects, such as reduced consumer confidence, increased unemployment or reputational harm on the international stage.
Signs of legal resistance
Encouragingly, the tide may be turning. In May 2025, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled that Senegal’s shutdown during the June–July 2023 protests was unlawful. The court found the blackout had violated citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information.
Just days later, Kenya’s High Court issued an injunction prohibiting the government from arbitrarily disrupting internet services. The court ruled that such actions must be subject to constitutional oversight and just cause.
These decisions reflect a growing judicial recognition that internet access is not a luxury, but a fundamental right in the digital age. They also create important legal precedents across the continent for future challenges to politically motivated shutdowns.
A four-point plan for digital resilience
To ensure Africa’s digital progress is not undone, urgent steps are needed. Four priority actions stand out:
- Codify legal safeguards against arbitrary shutdowns. Digital access must be protected through national laws that require clear justification and independent oversight.
- Create transparent emergency protocols that allow governments to address legitimate security concerns without indiscriminately cutting connectivity.
- Foster multistakeholder governance by including civil society, tech communities and private sector actors in policy design and crisis response planning.
- Invest in infrastructure resilience—such as decentralised networks and redundant systems—to ensure continuity even in localised disruptions.
The internet is Africa’s new infrastructure
In the 21st century, internet access must be treated as a foundational utility—just like electricity or clean water. For Africa to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, connectivity is not optional. It is the infrastructure of growth, innovation and economic inclusion.
Every time a government shuts down the internet, it risks more than political criticism. It risks stalling the engine of national development, breaking trust, and weakening the very tools that can help lift millions out of poverty.
The question is no longer whether Africa can afford to keep the internet open. It’s whether Africa can afford not to.
Amged B Shwehdy is a Research Fellow, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
This op-ed was first published by the World Economic Forum
