Key messages
• Many digital innovations have been developed and deployed in recent years in Africa, many of which have only been implemented at pilot stages, with limited evidence of successful scaling.
• There remains significant marketing and institutional constraints hindering the development of some of these digital innovations, which may further explain disparate progress in countries.
• Differential access to digital innovations across genders and different typologies of households may trigger alternative variants of digital divide.
• Although the landscape of digital innovations in Africa offers several reasons to remain optimistic, the prevailing disconnect between pilots and scale-ups merits further evaluation.