Up to 60% of Africa’s population still do not have access to data services. Around 20% of people that have smartphones do not use them for data. These were some of the revelations emerging out of the Mobile Africa 360 conference in Cape Town, South Africa. CCTV’s Travers Andrews reports.
Sub -Saharan Africa’s mobile industry is a key economic driver and employment creator,that has generated over $100 billion to the region’s GDP last year.
The region now has 367 million mobile subscribers but even with these encouraging numbers,the mobile ecosystem is set for decline in growth in the coming years.
This is according to a newly released report on Sub Saharan Africa’s Mobile Economy released at the Mobile Africa 360 conference which paints a picture of a decrease in consumer sentiment over costs of mobile devices and data prices.
Although that drop is happening in Africa,its still twice the global average and thats due to the fact that many Africans are still without access to mobile phones or the internet.
South Africa’s MTN only has 19% of its consumer base on smartphones but its actively targeting higher growth by sharing infrastructure with other network providers in order to slash costs to consumers and investing in local content for its video on demand services.
