Information and Communication Technologies: Impact on the Foreign Trade of African Countries

The relevance of the topic is due to the rapid development of information and communication technologies and their impact on socio-economic development. For developing countries, including African ones, informatization and digitalization have become an important area of catch-up development. Africa is making impressive progress in this direction, although this process faces many challenges, including lack of access to electricity in some rural areas, low incomes and insufficient literacy of a part of the population. African markets for ICT goods and services have their own specifics and are developing unevenly. The purpose of the article is to study the impact of information and communication technologies on the foreign trade of African countries, both from the point of view of the ICT goods market and from the point of view of the role of ICT solutions in improving the efficiency of the organization and regulation of trade operations. The structure and dynamics of ICT goods markets are analyzed, and interstate and private projects in the field of digitalization of logistics and customs procedures are also characterized, including in the context of the creation of an African continental Free Trade Zone. The impact of digitalization on the development of e-commerce, as well as on the informal sector of African trade, is assessed.