# ICT Adoption and Stock Market Development: Empirical Evidence Using a Panel of African Countries
## 6 Conclusions  
The primary aim of this study was to examine the impact of ICT adoption on stock market development in Africa. On the one hand, stock market development was proxied by four measures, namely stock market capitalisation, the number of listed companies, the stock market value traded and the stock market turnover ratio variables. On the other hand, ICT adoption was proxied by four measures, which included the fixed telephone user, mobile-telephone user, broadband user, and Internet user variables. By and large, a positive relationship was established between ICT adoption and stock market development measures. Firstly, it was documented that a positive relationship subsisted between the stock market traded volume and mobile-telephone user variables. Secondly, a positive relationship was also proven between the stock market traded volume and broadband user variables. Thirdly, it was established that the stock market capitalisation variable was positively related the fixed telephone user variable. Fourthly, the research findings confirmed a positive relationship between the stock market turnover ratio and fixed telephone user variable. The results of this study did not find any tangible evidence on the effect of the level of regulation of financial markets on stock market development in Africa. As such, it could be reasoned that, notwithstanding the highly regulated stock markets in many African countries, this does not seem to stifile stock market activity. The contribution of the study lies in that, hitherto, no panel study had been conducted to examine the link between ICT adoption and stock market development. This study has demonstrated the impact of ICT adoption on stock exchanges and on the economy in general. Specifically, the study documented that ICT adoption has a positive and significant impact on stock market development in Africa. As such, policy makers must continue to create an enabling environment for ICT adoption and investment in order to induce economic growth. Therefore, if African governments promulgate ICT policies that promote investments in the improvement of Internet services, broadband and telephone (mobile and fixed) infrastructure, this will spur stock market development. For example, African governments can remove restrictions on the repatriation of dividends or profits on ICT-related investments by foreign investors. Further, they can avail other incentives such as tax holidays for specific periods or allowing tax credits for companies that invest in ICT-related infrastructure. There are two main limitations and caveats to this study that we need to highlight. Firstly, it was beyond the scope of this study to test the effects of the business cycle (namely the 2007-2009 global financial crises and the COVID-19 pandemic) on the relationship between ICT adoption and stock market development. Secondly, the dataset employed in the study only extended up to 2017. As such, for robustness checks, future studies could extend the study period and also examine the effect of business cycles on the relationship between ICT adoption and stock market development. Further research in this realm could also investigate the impact of ICT adoption on the development of African stock markets, especially in this transformational regime of regional cooperation birthed by the signing of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement by most major African countries. Arguably, this could serve as a catalyst for the integration of stock exchanges and the attendant benefit of increasing the international competitiveness of African stock markets in general. Conceptualization, A.B.S. and J.I.I. ; methodology, J.I.I. and A.B.S. ; software, J.I.I. ; validation, J.I.I. and A.B.S. ; formal analysis, J.I.I. ; investigation, J.I.I; resources, J.I.I. ; data curation, J.I.I; writing--original draft preparation, J.I.I. ; writing--review and editing, J.I.I. and A.B.S. ; visualization, J.I.I. and A.B.S. ; supervision, A.B.S. ; project administration, A.B.S.