Achieving Inclusive Growth in African Countries: The Role of Governance, Renewable Energy and Digital Infrastructure

ABSTRACT Achieving inclusive growth has become a central policy objective for many African countries following decades of robust economic growth that has generated few employment opportunities and offered little hope for inclusive growth. With rising investments in renewable energy (REC), rapid expansion in ICT and growing efforts to improve governance (GOV), it is essential to examine how these factors shape inclusive growth (IG) in Africa. Thus, this study investigates how REC, ICT and GOV influence the distribution of IG across different quantiles using data from 45 African countries between 2002 and 2023. Employing the novel quantile regression method developed by Machado and Silva, alongside POLS and FGLS estimations, several key findings are documented. GOV and ICT positively affect IG across quantiles, while REC shows a negative effect. The positive impacts of GOV and ICT, however, decline at higher levels of IG. The results remain robust under alternative measures of IG, REC and ICT, reinforcing the reliability of the findings. Among the control variables, HC is the strongest driver of IG, followed by IVT. Given the study's findings, we submit that balancing REC investment with ICT and HC is crucial; strengthening GOV through institutional reforms could catalyse achieving more equitable and sustainable growth across African countries.