# ICT Adoption and Stock Market Development: Empirical Evidence Using a Panel of African Countries
## 5 Research Findings and Discussion
### Empirical Results on the Impact of ICT Adoption on Stock Market Development in Africa  
The panel regression results of testing the impact of ICT adoption measures on the four measures of stock market development are reported in Table 6. The first model (Model 1) that was estimated was on the relationship between the stock market traded volume and the ICT adoption and control variables. The stock market traded volume variable demonstrates persistence over time, as it is highly positively related to its lagged value. The results of both the system-GMM and FGLS estimations document that the stock market traded volume variable is positively related to the broadband user and mobile-telephone user variables and are statistically significant. This is in line with a priori expectations. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **FFI** & **IU** & **NBU** & **NFTU** & **NLC** & **NMU** & **SMC** & **SMTR** & **SMTV** & **GDP** \\ \hline
**FFI** & 1.000 & & & & & & & & & \\
**IU** & 0.076 & 1.000 & & & & & & & & \\
**NBU** & \(-0.196\)** & 0.398 *** & 1.000 & & & & & & & \\
**NFTU** & \(-0.147\) & 0.088 & 0.677 *** & 1.000 & & & & & & \\
**NLC** & 0.497 *** & 0.243 ** & \(-0.1293\) & \(-0.118\) & 1.000 & & & & & \\
**NMD** & \(-0.315\)*** & 0.109 & 0.473 *** & 0.443 *** & \(-0.351\)*** & 1.000 & & & & \\
**SMC** & 0.302 ** & 0.314 *** & 0.191 ** & 0.372 *** & 0.135 & 0.189 ** & 1.000 & & & \\
**SMTR** & \(-0.144\) & 0.146 & 0.532 *** & 0.853 *** & \(-0.143\) & 0.395 *** & 0.462 *** & 1.000 & & \\
**SMTV** & 0.130 & 0.208 ** & 0.250 *** & 0.565 *** & \(-0.044\) & 0.299 *** & 0.933 *** & 0.659 *** & 1.000 & \\
**GDP** & \(-0.255\)*** & 0.085 * & 0.410 *** & 0.485 *** & 0.267 *** & 0.923 *** & 0.391 *** & 0.464 *** & 0.477 *** & 1.000 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Correlation matrix. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c c c c c} \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**MODEL 1**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**MODEL 2**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**MODEL 3**} \\ \cline{2-13} \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Fixed Effects**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Syst-GBM**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**FGLS**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Fixed Effects**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Syst-GBM**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**FGLS**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Fixed Effects**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Syst-GBM**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**FGLS**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Fixed Effects**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Syst-GBM**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**FGLS**} \\ \cline{2-13} \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & **SMIT** & **SMIT** & **SMIT** & **SMIT** & **SMC** & **SMC** & **SMIT** & **SMIT** & **SMIT** & **SMIT**  
The results imply that the higher the number of broadband and mobile users, the higher the demand for shares, which results in increased trading volumes. The findings are consistent with that of [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2009) and [PERSON] (2010), who documented a positive relationship between ICT and the stock market traded volumes. In a study on the influence of ICT on the returns on stock and volume of trade on the Nairobi stock exchange, [PERSON] (2010) documented that the adoption of information and communication technology increased the mean of daily trade volume and return. The estimation results reveal a negative relationship between the stock market volumes traded variable and the economic growth variable. This is contrary to the presumed relationship. The second model (Model 2) that was estimated was on the relationship between stock market capitalisation and ICT adoption and control variables. Similarly, the stock market capitalisation variable is persistent over time as it is highly positively related to its lagged value. The results of the estimation system-GMM and FGLS estimators establish that stock market capitalisation is positively related to the fixed telephone user variable. This lends credence to the notion that ICT adoption has a significant and positive effect on stock market development.