Bridging the digital divide with ambitious plan to connect a billion people by 2030

Johannesburg, set to be the host city of this year’s G20 in November, is familiar with routine power cuts, failing infrastructure and the realities of income inequality. To many here, the digital revolution remains a distant promise. 

The gulf between the two South African realities, the plugged-in and the left-out, framed the debate as the B20 Digital Transformation Task Force unveiled its final set of recommendations for the G20 at a side event on Monday,  29 September 2025, in Cape Town. 

The task force, convened under South Africa’s Presidency, calls for urgent action on four fronts: affordable connectivity, digital skills, productive use of the internet and the ethical adoption of artificial intelligence. 

Connecting a billion more 

The task force’s headline ambition is to connect another billion people by 2030. This would chip away at the 2.6 billion who remain offline worldwide. While this goal is measurable, the barriers to achievement are stubborn when looking close to home. Device costs remain prohibitive, infrastructure lags in rural areas, and an unreliable electricity supply limits what connectivity can achieve in South Africa. 

“Connectivity is an area that telecoms companies are investing heavily into every single year,” said Naspers South Africa CEO and chairperson of the Digital Transformation Task Force, Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa. “From a digital skilling perspective, we are ensuring that we can get as many young people to have access to digital education as well.”

The South African Department of Communication and Digital Technologies’ Infrastructure Roadmap shows the limits of progress. In 2023, nearly 79% of citizens had internet access, yet most of it was via mobile phone. Only 14.5% of households enjoyed fixed broadband, while many schools still relied on slow 3G networks.

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“There is an undeniable link between digital transformation and economic growth,” said Sitho Mdlalose, Vodacom group executive. “When you look at the ability for small businesses to give themselves access to markets that are broader than just their local environment, digital connectivity gives a business the ability to connect payments and all sorts of different elements that expands and grows a business — it’s actually transformational.” 

Active on socials, still ‘invisible’ 

Access alone does not guarantee meaningful participation. Again, the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies’ roadmap puts this into context: 98% of South African users were active on social media in 2023, but fewer than a quarter shopped online, less than a fifth used e-learning, and only 22% interacted with government services digitally. 

Gabriel Swanepoel, Mastercard’s country manager for southern Africa, described the hollowness of financial inclusion as it is often presented. 

“You might have a card in the hand of every adult, but the reality is it’s a postbox. People withdraw their funds in cash and disappear into the ecosystem. In an economy which is increasingly becoming digitised, if you are anonymous and you are not able to showcase the type of economic activity you partake in, it’s very difficult to grow your business, have access to markets, and it’s difficult to access credit.” 

The B20’s answer is Digital Public Infrastructure — digital IDs, payment systems, and data exchanges that would allow citizens and small businesses to be visible in the economy. The South African Presidency has established an interdepartmental working group to develop a comprehensive strategy and implementation roadmap for the country’s Digital Public Infrastructure. The risks that come with delivering on such a strategy remain significant. 

Read more: Command line to control room: SA’s infrastructure vulnerable to cyberattacks

Ashleigh Theophanides, chief strategy officer for Deloitte Africa and deputy chairperson of the B20’s Integrity and Compliance Task Force, warned that while Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) could act as “the rails in which services can be built, in the same way as roads and electricity built past economies”, they also touched the most sensitive personal data. 

“We need to ensure that the right safeguards are in place to ensure that the information remains secure, otherwise it may be misused or it may be stolen.” And that’s not even mentioning the capital, manpower and infrastructure needed to integrate Digital Public Infrastructure into the country’s system. 

The skills shortfall 

Connectivity and infrastructure mean little without human capacity. In South Africa, 80% of workers have basic digital skills, but only a quarter possess intermediate digital skills and just one in 10 advanced digital skills, according to the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies’ roadmap. 

Read more: Bridging the digital divide with education as a catalyst for economic inclusion and growth

The B20 task force has urged governments to adopt national skills strategies and to attract global talent, but financing such initiatives remains a challenge for South Africa. Universal Service and Access Funds, designed to finance digital inclusion, have been criticised for inefficiency. 

Levies are added to already costly services, but in many jurisdictions funds remain unspent, pushing up prices for the poor without improving access, a report on the state of Information and Communications Technology in South Africa details. 

Mahanyele-Dabengwa said that education was the only path to meaningful participation. 

“AI is not something that people need to be afraid of. It is something that is supportive of us in our work. But for you to be able to make use of the AI tools that are available, you can only do that if you are educated to a certain level.” 

Ethics or expediency in AI 

The task force’s final recommendation focuses on artificial intelligence. The B20 calls for ethical standards and interoperable frameworks across countries, with targets to increase public trust in AI systems. 

Swanepoel highlighted the scale of opportunity. 

“It is expected to create 230 million jobs by 2030,” he said, citing Mastercard’s research that values AI’s contribution to Africa at R77.6-billion ($4.5-billion) today and projects it will reach R285-billion ($16.5-billion) within five years.

Read more: SA’s draft AI policy drives ubuntu into the algorithm

Mahanyele-Dabengwa warned that Africa risks falling behind. 

“We have countries in the Global South, such as China and India, which are way ahead of an African country such as ours,” she said. “So we need to ensure that we are positioning ourselves for a future where we can have people and our youth being participants in the economy, as opposed to just having mechanisation.” 

A fragile compact

The common thread across all four recommendations is the insistence on public-private collaboration. 

“One of the things… is a general mistrust between the public sector and the private sector on collaboration. No one holds all the answers. It requires that we work together, not just to tick boxes but to move into practical action,” said Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi. 

Mahanyele-Dabengwa agreed, calling the current public-private engagement “valuable” but fragile. 

“I’ve seen a significant amount of collaboration between the public and private sector, much more than in the past. But elections bring change, and you have to start all over again in terms of developing relationships.”

As the last Global South nation to host the G20 for the foreseeable future, South Africa tried to remind the world that digital priorities are global. Mahanyele-Dabengwa noted that even in the United States, which takes over the presidency next, digital divides persist.

“What makes me confident is the fact that when you look at the United States, it is also a nation where you have people who have a lot of access, but you also have people who don’t have as much access,” she said. “So I’m sure that it will be something of importance to ensure that they continue to focus on all of these issues.”

According to a 2023 study published in the Journal of Rural Health in the US that surveyed more than 105-million households, more than a third of them lacked a desktop or laptop with high speed internet, and more than 14% had no digital access at all. 

South Africa’s experience serves as a blueprint and cautionary tale. Fibre networks and data centres are expanding, but inequalities remain entrenched and policy delays are costly. The B20’s recommendations relay a promising future, but without sustained will from governments and business alike, they risk becoming another set of promises left behind by the speed of the digital age. DM