By BERNA NAMATA

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Millions of Africans remain offline with at least 59 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa not using mobile internet despite living in an area covered by mobile broadband largely due to the high cost of smartphones and the internet.

While the average selling price of smartphones in Africa has reduced significantly in recent years, with an influx of devices priced below $100 – the cost remains unaffordable for many, according to a new report – Mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa launched this week at the World Mobile Congress in Kigali, Rwanda by GSMA.

The twin challenge facing governments is to convince manufacturers to produce devices at low prices and to encourage partnerships with mobile operators and financial institutions, including device financing plans and instalment payments, to enhance device affordability and drive usage.

“Too many Africans remain offline. Today, Africa has the fastest-growing mobile penetration rate globally. But we still have a long way to go. Yet, we have the means to address the problems we have today. Regional integration, powered by faster and more reliable broadband, is a big part of it. We can get more results, faster, by working together,” said Rwanda President Paul Kagame at the opening ceremony of the World Mobile Congress, underscoring the need to address the gaps in access and connectivity in Africa, with a sense of urgency.

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Currently, smartphone ownership in Rwanda stands at 27 percent despite the country having a network coverage of 99 percent with affordability as the biggest barrier.

According to GSMA intelligence, in 2022, Sub-Saharan Africa had some 287 million mobile internet subscribers.

The mobile internet usage gap in the region is still significant, highlighting the impact of the barriers to mobile internet adoption, including lack of affordability and low levels of digital skills.

“Affordability of service and device is a key barrier; the majority of consumers are finding devices and mobile internet services beyond their reach from a financial perspective,” Caroline Mbugua, director of public policy, for Sub-Saharan Africa told The EastAfrican.

“A lot of content that we consume in the region is largely in English and French; we have other local languages in the region that are not covered or excluded from this content. There is a need for a concerted effort to ensure that we have content in the region that is available in our local languages and developed in the region”.

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Legacy networks

The report shows that 4G connections in the region will almost double by 2030, increasing the 4G adoption rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a percentage of total connections, to 49 percent.

This will be driven by continued network upgrades and efforts to make 4G devices more affordable. This transition to 4G means that the number of connections on legacy networks (2G and 3G) will decline steadily in the coming years.

“As service providers across Sub-Saharan Africa continue to invest in 4G and users migrate from legacy networks, mobile data traffic will rise considerably. The increase in data traffic will be driven mainly by growing usage of data-heavy services, primarily video streaming and online gaming.”

The report shows that in Sub-Saharan Africa’s streaming market, where most customers rely on mobile broadband for connectivity, competition is heating up among global streaming providers — Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and local providers — Showmax and Wi-flix.

Please note that: revenue is expected to grow slowly but steadily in the region as operators continue to invest in 4G and 5G network deployments and diversify their services with new revenue streams.

Growing revenue from mobile money and mobile data services continues to underpin operator growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For example, at the end of March 2023, Airtel Africa reported year-on-year increases in mobile money revenue of 29.6 percent and data revenue of 23.8 percent. MTN also saw double-digit gains across both categories by the end of 2022.

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In 2022, mobile technologies and services generated 8.1 per cent of GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa, amounting to $170 billion of economic value added.

The greatest benefits came from productivity effects reaching $110 billion, followed by mobile operators, which generated $40 billion.

By 2030, mobile’s contribution will reach some $210 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa, driven mostly by improvements in productivity and efficiency from increased mobile services uptake.