11 - ICT Adoption and Innovation in Ghana

Summary

Using survey data collected in 2013, and multivariate probit estimation, this chapter examines the effect of ICT on innovation performance of manufacturing firms in Ghana. The estimation results suggest that ICT not only leads to a higher likelihood of firms to innovate but also directly enhances the growth of sales in new innovative products. In particular, our results show that the internet serves as the most important source of information, enabling local firms to transcend borders and integrate and take advantage of existing and developed infrastructure existing elsewhere for local innovation activities. The results suggest that knowledge is now a click away and policy must encourage firms to participate and take advantage of the knowledge economy by engaging and interacting with frontier firms.