Africa is known for inadequate access to all sorts of human needs including health, education, food, shelter, transport, security, and energy. Before the emergence of massive open online courses (MOOCs), open access to higher education (HE) was exclusive of Africa. However, as a generally affordable method of post-secondary education delivery, MOOCs place the developing countries at the centre of universal access to HE. This paper provides the strategy for MOOC implementation in the context of limited resources in Africa. The strategy is clustered under five baseline requirements: national accredited MOOC curriculum, electronic content development, development of an online and offline eLearning platform, establishment and funding of MOOC coordination units at public HEIs, and establishment of MOOC access hubs at strategic locations. Emerging from this paper is the insight that a new era of universal access to HE in Africa is achievable through MOOCs only if initial requirements are met by the respective governments.

Thanks to the ongoing expansion of internet access and, most recently, the movement restrictions that were put in place globally to stop COVID-19 spread, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are prepared to use social media platforms to market their products as a way to improve their business performance in emerging economies. Businesses at all levels that use social media marketing (SMM) see a considerable increase in their output. This study’s objective is to identify the factors that significantly help Ugandan SMEs implement SMM techniques to enhance their commercial performance. Here, statistical models are utilized to analyze how the age and gender of SMEs owners as moderating variables affect the adoption and performance of SMEs in Uganda. A theoretical model that is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) theories has been put out as part of a specific conceptual framework. The following indicators are used to evaluate the performance of SMEs: sales, customer engagement, awareness of customers’ needs, low operation costs, and brand modification by staff. Empirical model validation has been performed using 152 business units (observation units) corresponding to the number of respondents (units of analysis), and the ensuing analyses have been done using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicate that compatibility and perceived ease of use have a positive impact on SMEs to adopt SMM, while perceived usefulness has a negative impact on SMEs to adopt SMM. Age and gender as moderating variables all have a positive moderating effect. With limited studies available on the subject, this research contributes to already existing literature by combining two components of the TAM model and one component of the IDT to explain the impact of SMM on SMEs when moderated by both age and gender in a developing economy.

Food security at subsistence farmers' level in sub-Saharan Africa has become an issue of concern due to increasing vulnerability caused by a number of factors such as: changing climate, resource scarcity (e.g. land and inputs), environmental degradation (e.g. declining soil fertility, deforestation, and surface water eutrophication), market failures and weak public/donor support initiatives. In light of these challenges, farmers must be prepared to survive by self-provisioning. To pursue the fastest and most practical route to improved food security, focus should be on resilience based initiatives at household and community levels. In this paper, the authors investigate the factors that have enabled subsistence farmers to succeed despite the previous shocks and stresses, and develop a system dynamics model for sustainable food security based on initiatives exclusive to the farmers. The model is used to examine the question: how can innovative subsistence farmers engage in better livelihood and market orientated production irrespective of external public or donor support?

Financial inclusion is challenged by numerous factors that include country regulations and policies, poor infrastructure, lack of financial education and literacy, low income levels, political instability, geographical barriers, reluctance by banks to change from traditional banking models of branch networks, and expensive technology. These challenges could be addressed by leveraging technological innovations like mBanking; however, literature indicates that there is limited understanding of integrating mobile technology into banking to enhance financial inclusion. The study collected data from Vhembe District Municipality in South Africa. Results indicated that of the 17 factors tested, 14 were significant for using mBanking to improve financial inclusion. The study recommends that for financial inclusion improvement, developing countries should design realistic policies and strategies that could enable the use of mBanking, especially mobile money and agent banking, that can reach a wider population at low cost.

Organizations are now in an era of scale, where the volumes of data gathered, processed and stored is breaking down every architectural construct in the storage industry. This have seen organizations improve their analytics processes such as acquiring and using big data analytics tools as well as increasing their bandwidth and storage devices in order to boost their operational efficiency with little complexity. However, apart from the fact that there are different analytics applications there other issues that need to be paid attention to while addressing the Big Data boom. This paper reports on Big Data Analytics readiness in a public sector. The study was informed by data collected from South African Revenue Services (SARS) by using a close-ended questionnaires. The collected data was analysed quantitatively and the findings indicated that technological infrastructure, security, reliability, finances, competitors, customers and vendors are core antecedents for Big Data analytic readiness. Much as the techniques for big data analytics aren't all that new, fewer studies have been conducted hence this study contributes to information systems literature of Big Data analytics.

The importance of knowledge sharing in healthcare organisations cannot be overemphasised. This is mainly due to the dynamic and sensitive nature of knowledge within the healthcare sector that can assist in caring for the patients and other administrative operations. The absence of knowledge sharing and retention practice in healthcare organisations may result in negative repercussions. Hence, using Actor-Network Theory, the study will investigate and identify the factors influencing the current knowledge sharing taking place within the South African healthcare system. One of the top healthcare organisations was selected for data collection, and a qualitative research method was adopted in this study. The findings revealed the different actors involved in the sharing of knowledge and the networks that enable knowledge sharing and retention. The study also highlights the factors that triggered knowledge sharing.