During the last summit on the development of the mobile sector in Africa, the GSMA (organization representing mobile operators) found that the mobile sector contributed with more than 100 billion God d for Sub-Saharan Africa's economy in 2014, equivalent to 5,7 per cent of the region's gross domestic product.
Mobile operators contributed directly with 31 billion, representing 1,7 percent of GDP. By 2020, the industry is expected to contribute 160 billion USD, equivalent to 8 percent of expected GDP.
But not everything is positive ...
It appears that there are challenges ahead, with growth rates of subscribers set to slow down, reflecting the obstacles that remain in bringing connectivity to the region, caused by several problems, with emphasis on energy, the increase in competition and action regulatory.
According to Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of the GSMA:
“Despite the pressures of falling subscriptions and profits, local mobile operators continue to invest heavily to expand network coverage to serve unconnected communities and accelerate the migration to high-speed 3G / 4G mobile broadband networks.
Mobile technology is also playing a central role in Sub-Saharan Africa, addressing a number of socio-economic challenges, including digital and financial inclusion, and allowing access to vital services such as education and health
The fastest growing region
The forecast is encouraging: we will have 386 million exclusive mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2015, equivalent to 41 percent of the region's population.
Growth in the first half of the decade (from 2010 to 2015) was 13 percent per year, more than double the world average (6 percent). It surpassed Latin America in 2014 to become the world's third largest mobile subscriber market, behind Asia Pacific and Europe.
The future is promising
The number of exclusive mobile subscribers 518 millions up to 2020, which represents almost half of the region's population
3G commercial networks have been launched in 41 countries across sub-Saharan Africa from June of 2015, while 4G networks are available in 23 countries (in which Angola is included with the networks of Unitel, Movicel and NetOne).
See here the full report.
