ABSTRACT Africa faces a dual challenge: unlocking development potential while mitigating poverty, inequality, and ecological degradation. Although sustainable development has gained traction globally, Africa's pathway remains underexplored—particularly regarding the combined roles of financial development, energy transition, and digitalization. This study investigates how these three drivers influence sustainable development across economic (GDP per capita), environmental (ecological footprint), and social (income inequality) dimensions in 30 African countries from 1997 to 2022. We apply Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) estimation to capture long‐run effects; System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS‐GMM) for short‐run dynamics—re‐estimated with improved diagnostics—and Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) to account for distributional heterogeneity. Oil‐exporting status is incorporated via interaction terms to explore structural divergence. Results show that financial development enhances economic sustainability ( β = 1.734, p < 0.01) but increases ecological degradation. Digitalization supports all three sustainability pillars, while renewable energy promotes economic and environmental gains. Conversely, nonrenewable energy boosts growth but undermines environmental and social outcomes. Oil‐exporting countries face sharper environmental trade‐offs but benefit more from digitalization in reducing inequality. The study recommends aligning financial systems with green objectives, expanding inclusive digital infrastructure, and accelerating renewable energy deployment, particularly in resource‐dependent states. These insights contribute to advancing SDGs 7, 8, 10, and 13 in Africa and acknowledge remaining data and methodological limitations to guide future research.
Huang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.