EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOBILE CELLULAR SUBSCRIPTIONS AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH: SADC MEMBERS

Ndivhuho Eunice Ratombo; Itumeleng Pleasure Mongale

doi:10.2478/eoik-2024-0019

Authors

Ndivhuho Eunice Ratombo School of Economics and Management, University of Limpopo, South Africa
Itumeleng Pleasure Mongale School of Economics and Management, University of Limpopo, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2024-0019

Keywords:

inclusive growth, mobile cellular subscription, digitalisation, panel ARDL, SADC member states

Abstract

Inclusive growth had faced global challenges in social and gender disparities issues, especially in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, which affects its administrations and distributions in modern development contexts. Recognised international institutions have used the term inclusive growth as a description of growth that is formed through labor force and distributions focusing on well-being. This study examines the relationship between mobile cellular subscriptions and inclusive growth to improve the standard of living using a panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach from 2000 to 2020. The economic growth context studies applied were unable to capture the demand for improving welfare and expectations to lessen poverty, while promoting inclusivity for SADC. Moreover, SADC economic growth partially dealt with the inclusive growth challenges of network connectivity, poor household benefit sharing, and a fast-growing population by applying non-validated methods that were useful to measure economic growth but fail to respond to inclusive growth. The World Bank (WB) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) databases were used to identify that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between mobile cellular subscriptions and inclusive growth in the long run. The findings of this study contribute by clarifying and urging policymakers and researchers concerned about equitable economic development to incorporate this sufficient to the relevant upbringing of communication channels to embrace inclusive growth opportunities to expand inclusive growth rapport and channels.

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