Stories by Ayoni M. Agbabiaka Abuja
Mo b i l e s u b s c r i b e r s i n underpenetrated markets such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania are expected to grow by over 50 million by the year 2020. Th is feat will be recorded just as the mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to surpass 500 million by the end of this year. All these from the countries will together account for half of the 115 million new subscribers expected in SubSaharan Africa by 2020. According to a report launched on Tuesday by the GSM Association (GSMA), the number of unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa will grow from 420 million at the end of 2016 to 535 million in 2020. The new report, “The Mobile Economy: SubSaharan Africa 2017 highlights the mobile ecosystem’s growing contribution to the region’s GDP, job creation, innovation and socioeconomic development.
Th is, the association said, will make it the fastest growing region in the world over this period on mobile phones. Director-General of the GSMA, Mats Granryd, said, “sub-Saharan Africa will be a key engine of subscriber growth for the world’s mobile industry over the next few years as we connect millions of previously unconnected men, women and young people across the continent. According to him, mobile is also offering sustainable solutions that address the lack of access to services such as health, education, electricity, clean water and financial services, which still aff ect large swathes of the population. It said growth would also focus on currently underrepresented segments such as the under-16 age group, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the population in many countries; as well as women, who are currently 17 percent less likely to have a mobile phone subscription than men. According to GSMA, mobile is also a vital tool in delivering digital and fi nancial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Around 270 million people in the region now access the internet through mobile devices, while the number of registered mobile money accounts has reached 280 million. It finds that mobile operators and others are also leveraging the ubiquity of
mobile networks across the region to deliver services that are working towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs will focus on energy, water and sanitation, healthcare, education among others. Granryd added that, “as Sub-Saharan Africa transitions to higher levels of mobile engagement, underpinned by growing access to mobile data services and smart devices, we are seeing a fl ourishing mobile ecosystem emerge, supported by growing investments by operators and others in mobile-focused start-ups and tech hubs.”
Mobile technologies and services generated $110 billion of economic value in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2016, equivalent to 7.7 percent of regional GDP. Th is fi gure is expected to grow to 142 billion dollars (8.6 percent of GDP) by 2020. Th e mobile ecosystem also supported approximately 3.5 million jobs in the region in 2016, and made a 13-billion-dollar contribution to the public sector in the form of taxation. According to the report, local mobile operators have invested $37 billion in their networks over the past five years, mainly to deploy new 3G/4G mobile broadband networks. About a third of mobile connections in region were running on mobile broadband networks at the end of 2016, forecast to rise to 60 percent by 2020. Th ese new networks, alongside rising smartphone adoption, are driving demand for digital content and services. (Xinhua/NAN)
