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1. Introduction
The substantial differences in economic growth performance between USA and EU in the late 1990s sparked debates in information and communication technology (ICT)-growth literature. Investment in ICT is higher and favors USA economy over EU member countries, which contributed positively toward firms’ productivity and therefore economic growth (Dimelis and Papaioannou, 2010). There are overwhelming evidence of positive impact of ICT on developed countries (Dimelis and Papaioannou, 2010; Yousefi, 2011; Jung et al., 2013; Doulek et al., 2015). On another front, some studies postulated that ICT in developing countries had very low or even no impact on economic growth, citing low level of investment and absence of human skills and good policies as reasons (Dewan and Kraemer, 2000; Kraemer and Dedrick, 2001; Dimelis and Papaioannou, 2010; Zuhdi et al., 2012; Chavula, 2013).
However, studies conducted on developing countries are mostly in Asian countries, leaving the African regions with little empirical evidence. Besides, most considered investment in ICT instead of ICT telecommunications services itself, in their studies. Subsequently, from 2010 onwards, studies of the African continents started to emerge (Alozie et al., 2011; Andrianaivo and Kpodar, 2011; Lee et al., 2012; Chavula, 2013; Wamboye et al., 2015). However, these studies faced several methodological limitations. In fact, compared to developed and Asian countries, research on ICT in Sub Saharan African (SSA) regions is still in infancy stage and needs further exploration and discussions so as to have strong economic policies on ICT development.
Several studies have argued the role of ICT per se with regards to productivity, without complementary factors. The idea is for them to adopt human capital and organizations before they can benefit from ICT investment. These factors may act as production enhancing transmission channels. Their results confirmed that ICT works better once coupled with factors such as human capital and good management (Samoilenko and Osei-Bryson, 2008). While studies mostly looked at micro level, empirical evidence at macroeconomic level is still scarce.
Several studies did examine ICT roles at macroeconomic level for Asian economies (Wang, 1999; Sassi and Goaied, 2013; Jin and Cho, 2015). Studies as such, in SSA regions, only concentrated on one channel, financial development (Andrianaivo and Kpodar, 2011; Wamboye et al., 2015). In addition...