The social implications of digital transformation in Ghana and other parts of Africa have not drawn much research attention despite the potential risks of digital change. This study assessed the state of digital transformation, the nature of digital inequality and the effects of digitization on digital inequality in Ghana. The study was carried out using the sequential explanatory mixed methodology. The researcher surveyed three thousand, one hundred and sixty-two (3162) people randomly selected from nine (9) administrative districts in Ghana's Savannah and Greater Accra regions. In addition, the researcher conducted in-depth personal interviews with six (6) purposively sampled key informants. This study revealed that Ghana is at the beginning stages of being digitally transformed. Mobile phones are widely available throughout the country, but computers are not as common. The available technologies are unevenly distributed. Digital transformation in Ghana is beginning to manifest in the structure of the Ghanaian economy, society, and government. However, there are persistent gender and geographic disparities in digital access, digital skills, and usages. Gendered digital inequalities are steeper than geographic disparities, and women in the Savannah region suffer the most digital disadvantages due to the interaction between gender and geography. Also, as the Internet becomes more widely available in Ghana, digital access gaps are closing but the digital skills and usage gaps are emerging, consistent with the tenets Resources and Appropriation theory. This study concludes that Ghana’s digital rapid transformation could exacerbate exiting social divides, especially gender inequalities if it is not operationalised and implemented more tactfully.:DEDICATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABBREVIATIONS iii ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENT vi LIST OF TABLES xiv LIST OF FIGURES xvi CHAPTER ONE 1 GENNERAL INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Chapter Overview 1 1.2 Background to the study 1 1.2 Research Problem 4 1.3 Purpose of the study 6 1.4 Objectives of the Study 6 1.5 Research Questions 7 1.6 Significance of the study 7 1.7 Organization of the Study 8 CHAPTER TWO 9 DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS 9 2.1 Chapter overview 9 2.2 Digitization 9 2.3 Digitalization 11 2.4 Digital Transformation 13 2.5 The Digital Divide 16 2.6 Evolution of the Digital Divide 19 2.7 From Digital Divide to Digital Inequality 22 2.8 Chapter Summary 24 CHAPTER THREE 25 DIGITAL INEQUALITY 25 3.1 Chapter overview 25 3.2 Digital Inequality 25 3.3 Forms of Digital Inequality 28 3.3.1 Inequality in technical means (access) 28 3.3.2 Inequality in Autonomy (control) 28 3.3.3 Inequality in Skills (Usage) 29 3.3.4 Inequality in Social support (Network) 30 3.3.5 Inequality in purpose of use (outcome) 30 3.4 Determinants of Digital Inequalities 31 3.4.1 Demographic determinants 32 3.4.2 Economic Determinants 34 3.4.3 Social Determinants 35 3.4.4 Cultural Determinants 36 3.4.5 Personal Determinants 37 3.4.6 Material Determinants 38 3.4.7 Motivational Determinants 38 3.4.8 Urban-rural dimension 39 3.5 Chapter Summary 40 CHAPTER FOUR 41 THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE STUDY 41 4.1 Chapter overview 41 4.2 The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) 41 4.2.1 Evolution and Development of SCOT 41 4.2.2 Elements of SCOT 43 4.2.2.2 Interpretative flexibility 44 4.2.2.3 Stabilization and Closure 45 4.2.2.4 Technological Frame 46 4.2.2.5 Wider social context 47 4.2.3 Dichotomy between technology constructionism and determinism 48 4.2.4 Limitations of SCOT 49 4.2.5 SCOT Research 50 4.3 Resources and Appropriation Theory 52 4.3.1 Origins and development of Resources and Appropriation theory (RAT) 52 4.3.2 Central arguments and concepts of RAT 53 4.3.3 Technology Appropriation 55 4.3.4 Research on Technology Appropriation 59 4.3.5 Limitations of Resources and Appropriation theory 60 4.4 RAT and SCOT 61 4.5 Hypotheses Development 62 4.6 Chapter Summary 63 CHAPTER FIVE 64 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND DIGITAL INEQUALITY IN AFRICA 64 5.1 Introduction 64 5.2 Digital Evolution in Sub-Saharan Africa 64 5.3 Africa’s Digital Agenda 66 5.4 Digital Transformation of Africa 71 5.5 The State of digital inequalities in Africa 75 5.6 Causes and Drivers of Digital Inequality in Africa 79 5.6.1 High incidence of poverty 79 5.6.2 Legacy inequalities 80 5.6.3 The dearth of basic ICT Infrastructure like electricity 81 5.6.4 Misguided ICT policies and weak regulation 83 5.6.5 Adverse digital incorporation 85 5.6.6 Covid-19 pandemic factor 87 5.6.7 Urbanism 88 5.7 Chapter Summary 89 CHAPTER SIX 90 COUNTRY CONTEXT: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 90 6.1 Chapter Overview 90 6.2 Why Ghana: Justifying the focus on Ghana 90 6.3 About Ghana: A Brief Country Profile 93 6.4 Ghana’s Digital Profile 95 6.5 Digital Transformation in Ghana 98 6.5.1 Digital transformation of businesses in Ghana 101 6.5.2 Digital transformation of society in Ghana 104 6.5.3 Digital Transformation of Government 107 6.6 Challenges and barriers to digital transformation in Ghana 110 6.7 Chapter Conclusion 115 CHAPTER SEVEN 117 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 117 7.1 Introduction 117 7.2 Research Approach 117 7.3 Research Design 119 7.4 Measures 121 7.4.1 Construction of Indices 121 6.4.2 Major independent variables 124 7.5 Study Area 125 7.5.1 Study Area: Greater Accra Region 125 6.5.2 Study Area: Savanna Region 126 6.6 Study Population 128 6.7 Sampling Methods 129 6.7.1 Quantitative phase 129 7.7.2 Qualitative Phase 131 7.8 Data collection 132 7.8.1 Quantitative Phase: Questionnaire construction structure and content 133 7.8.2 Validity and Reliability 134 7.8.3 Questionnaire administration 135 7.8.4 Semi-structured in-depth interviews 136 7.9 Data Analysis 137 7.10 Research Ethics 138 7.11 Data Collection Challenges 140 7.12 Chapter Summary 141 CHAPTER EIGHT 142 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS: DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS 142 8.1 Chapter Overview 142 8.2 Geographical Distribution 142 8.3 Sex Distribution of Respondents 144 8.4 Age Distribution 144 8.5 Educational Status of Respondents 146 8.6 Employment Status of Respondents 146 8.7 Ethnicity 148 8.8 Chapter Summary 149 CHAPTER NINE 150 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS: STATE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN GHANA 150 9.1 Chapter Overview 150 9.2 Digital Infrastructure 151 9.3 Digital Economy 153 9.4 Digital Government 155 9.5 Digital Society 157 9.6 Discussion of Findings 164 CHAPTER TEN 171 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS: STATE OF DIGITAL INEQUALITY IN GHANA 171 10.1 Chapter Overview 171 10.2 Digital Access Divide (First level digital divide) 171 10.3 Digital Skills Divide (Second level digital divide) 182 10.4 Third-Level Digital Divide: Disparities in ICT usage 189 10.4.1 Frequency of internet use in the Greater Accra and Savannah Regions 190 10.4.2 Disparities in ICT Use in the Greater Accra and the Savannah Region 191 10.4.3 Frequency of internet use among females and males 194 10.4.4 Gender-based disparities in internet use 195 10.5 The Interaction of Gender, Geography and Digital inequality 198 10.6 Discussion of Findings 202 10.7 Chapter Summary 211 CHAPTER ELEVEN 212 FINDINGS & ANALYSIS: EFFECTS OF DIGITIZATION ON DIGITAL INEQUALITY IN GHANA 212 11.1 Chapter Overview 212 11.2 Effects of Internet availability on the digital access divide 212 11.3 Effects of Internet Availability on the Digital Skills divide 218 11.4 Effects of Internet availability on the digital usage 223 11.5 Chapter Summary 230 CHAPTER TWELVE 231 FINDINGS & ANALYSIS: IMPEDIMENTS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 231 12.1 Chapter Overview 231 12.2 Infrastructural Challenges 232 12.3 Operationalization and implementation of digitalization policies 234 12.4 High Cost of ICTs 237 12.5 Socio-cultural challenges 240 12.6 Digital Inequality 243 12.7 Cyber-security and privacy concerns 245 12.8 Low awareness and low patronage of government applications 248 12.9 Non-inclusion of vulnerable persons and groups 250 12.11 Chapter Summary 253 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 254 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 254 13.1 Chapter overview 254 13.2 Summary of the study 254 13.3 Conclusion 258 13.4 Recommendations: Towards a digital transformation strategy for Ghana 261 APPENDIXES 292

Diese Arbeit untersucht den Einfluss von Kultur und Sprache auf die Nutzung des Internets. Drei Hauptgebiete wurden bearbeitet: (1) Der Einfluss von Kultur und Sprache auf Nutzerpräferenzen bezüglich der Darstellung von Informationen und Nutzung von Suchoptionen; (2) Der Einfluss von Kultur auf Nutzerpräferenzen bezüglich des Inhaltes von Websiteinformationen; (3) Der Einfluss von Sprache auf die Nutzerzufriedenheit und Sprache als Informationszugangsbarriere Daten aus Logfile-Analysen, Onlinebefragungen und experimentellen Untersuchungen bildeten die Auswertungsgrundlage für die Überprüfung der 33 Hypothesen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass kulturspezifische Denkmuster mit Navigationsmusters und Nutzung von Suchoptionen korrelieren. Der Einfluss von Kultur auf Nutzerpräferenzen bezüglich des Inhaltes von Websiteinformationen erwies sich als weniger eindeutig. Aus den Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von Sprache ging hervor, dass Sprache Web¬sitezugriff und –nutzung beeinflusst. Die Daten zeigen, dass signifikant weniger L1-Nutzer als L2-Nutzer auf eine Website zugreifen. Dies lässt sich zum einem mit dem sprachbedingten kognitiven Aufwand erklären als auch mit der Tatsache, dass Websites unterschiedlicher Sprachen weniger miteinander verlinkt sind als Websites gleicher Sprachen. Im Hinblick auf die Nutzung von Suchoptionen zeigte sich, dass L2 Nutzer mit geringem themenspezifischen Wissen sich signifikant von L1 Nutzern unterscheiden. Schließlich lassen die Ergebnisse auch darauf schließen, dass Zufriedenheit der Nutzer einer Website einerseits mit Sprachfähigkeiten der Nutzer und andererseits mit der wahrgenommenen Menge muttersprachlichen Angebots im Internet korreliert. / This thesis analyses the impact of culture and language on Internet use. Three main areas were investigated: (1) the impact of culture and language on preferences for information presentation and search options, (2) the impact of culture on the need for specific website content, and (3) language as a barrier to information access and as a determinant of website satisfaction. In order to test the 33 hypotheses, data was gathered by means of logfile analyses, online surveys, and laboratory studies. It was concluded that culture clearly correlated with patterns of navigation behaviour and the use of search options. In contrast, results concerning the impact of culture on the need for website content were less conclusive. Results concerning language, showed that significantly fewer L1 users than L2 users accessed a website. This can be explained with language related cognitive effort as well as with the fact the websites of different languages are less linked than websites of the same language. With regard to search option use, a strong mediation effect of domain knowledge was found. Furthermore, results revealed correlations between user satisfaction and language proficiency, as well as between satisfaction and the perceived amount of native language information online.