South Africa's potential The ability to compete in the global digital economy is lagging, with key metrics on infrastructure, broadband access and a country's skills profile lagging as peer economies catch up.
These are among the findings from South Africa Digital Infrastructure Investment Study (SADIS) 2025 Report (PDF) Released last week by the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
The report states, “International indices highlight a significant weakness in South Africa's future global ranking in digital competitiveness. Our self-developed metrics as well as consultation with stakeholders confirm what South African policy documents are calling for: significant investment in programs to increase digital literacy and digital preparedness.”
This report was produced by the DBSA in partnership with the National Planning Commission. Its main objective is to determine how much investment is needed – and where – to ensure that all South Africans have access to, and can meaningfully use, high quality, affordable broadband connectivity to participate in the digital economy.
study led Peter GrootsDigital economy strategist at Networks Anonymous, with contributions from a multidisciplinary team spanning ICT network infrastructure, network costs and investments, public policy and economics expertise and including: Andre Wills, Project Director at Africa Analysis, Walter Moldenhauer, GIS specialist and econometric modeller at Africa Analysis, Ronald Cawley, telecommunications technical and financial analyst at CraftTech, and Dominic Cull, policy and regulatory expert at Ellipsis.
areas of weakness
The digital competitiveness ranking combines multiple factors including the ability of the labor force to use digital tools, the future trajectory of the skills base, and whether the current legislative and regulatory environment supports investment in digital infrastructure, ensures effective data and privacy governance, and provides strong cybersecurity protections.
SADIS analysis shows South Africa improved its overall ranking from 60th to 54th in 2020th in 2024 (out of 67 countries), according to the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Index 2025. But a closer look at individual metrics reveals worrying differences.
Reading: SA finally has a broadband map – and it reveals where the gaps are
South Africa performed worst in training and education (60)th) and in the regulatory framework for digital competitiveness (62Ra). The country ranks 61st in terms of quality of education outcomesscheduled tribe 56th for higher education attainment and number of graduates in science.
Even more worryingly, South Africa consistently ranks second globally for education expenditure as a proportion of the national budget, meaning that outcomes do not match financial investment.
According to the report, one reason South Africa has not been able to improve its ranking much is that countries that have already invested in digital infrastructure and skills tend to maintain those gains over time.
Another factor is the glaring usage gap: more than 98% of the population has 4G coverage, yet meaningful Internet use is far less.
At the launch of the report at the DBSA's offices in Midrand last week, report chief Groots said deploying infrastructure alone is not enough. To ensure that people want to – and are empowered to – use digital tools to improve their lives, money should also be spent on demand-side factors.
Affordability was identified as the major barrier to usage, with most users relying on mobile connections and typically purchasing prepaid data bundles to go online. The relatively high cost of devices – as a percentage of income – also plays a restrictive role: reports show that a basic but capable smartphone costs more than South Africa's universal basic minimum monthly wage.
According to the report, South Africa needs a cumulative investment of between R108 billion and R142 billion by 2035 to connect all households with 100Mbit/s broadband and boost the country's ability to participate competitively in the digital economy. But merely removing supply side constraints will not be enough.
Reading: The staggering cost of connecting every South African home
The report argues that the potential for a digital society no longer depends solely on the availability of infrastructure, but on whether a country has the capacity to adopt and productively use digital technologies – what it calls “digital readiness”. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
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