ICT Leapfrogging and Stock Market Performance in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries

ICT leapfrogging hypothesis suggests that developing countries like SSA countries should skip traditional stages of development and rapidly embrace information communication technology. According to this hypothesis, developing countries would experience rapid development if they absorb ICT leapfrogging. This study, tested ICT leapfrogging hypothesis on stock exchange performance in selected SSA countries. The study covered 2008-2022. Principal Component Analysis was employed in computing single measure of ICT and stock performance based on ICT and stock performance variables. Hypothesis was tested using fixed effect estimate and the result found that ICT leapfrogging hypothesis did not hold on stock performance in the selected SSA countries. The study concludes that lack of telecommunication infrastructure in the SSA region is a major factor that contributed to the failure of ICT leapfrogging hypothesis on stock performance in the selected SSA countries. The study therefore recommended that telecommunication infrastructure be provided in the SSA region.