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Smartphone adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa is rising really fast
13 August 2022While Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world’s fastest-growing mobile region over the coming years, millions of African mobile users are making the next step adopting a smartphone for their daily lives. According to the new “GSMA The Mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa 2019” report, total number of smartphone connections in the region reached 302 million in 2018, adding more than 50 million over the year.
The coming years are expected to be more exciting as smartphone’s growth will continue to rise even more explosively. Smartphones accounted for 39{2b3fe3109f87c6f1c896babd3a2485fbf135a42141067a7771ef7eb1664b998e} of mobile connections in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018, forecast to increase to two thirds (66{2b3fe3109f87c6f1c896babd3a2485fbf135a42141067a7771ef7eb1664b998e}) of connections by 2025, as analysts raise their bets, estimating that by this year total number of smartphone connections will reach 700 million.
Source: The Mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa 2019, GSMA
Driving force of this change will be youth population. “A new generation of youthful ‘digital natives’ across Sub-Saharan Africa are set to fuel customer growth and drive adoption of new mobile services that are empowering lives and transforming businesses” said Akinwale Goodluck, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, GSMA.
Key driver of smartphone adoption is the growth of entry-level devices at affordable prices, often from more price-focused brands. Besides prices, key role to the affordability of smartphones will play services such as handset loans, a sector where Channel VAS is well positioned, offering a fully managed handset financing program to mobile network operators.
Mobile Internet adoption will reach 483 million
Though slightly below the figures above, mobile internet adoption will continue to grow dramatically in the coming years. At the end of 2018, 239 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa were connected to the mobile internet, an increase of 35 million on the previous year. According to analysts’ estimations the number of connections will more than double in the coming years; from 239 million in 2018 they will reach 483 million in 2025. This means that nearly 40{2b3fe3109f87c6f1c896babd3a2485fbf135a42141067a7771ef7eb1664b998e} of the population will be mobile internet subscribers, while 245 million people 245 across the region will start using the mobile internet for the first time.
Four primary enablers of digital inclusion will play a critical role: Infrastructure, affordability, consumer readiness and availability of content/services. During 2018, there was a significant progress in the infrastructure and availability of content/services, which recorded the highest rises as a result of significant investments in 3G and 4G network expansion and the increasing availability of locally relevant online content. If these enablers continue to improve over the next few years, mobile internet adoption will meet analysts’ expectations.
