African countries have leapfrogged fixed-line technology and gone straight to mobile. There are 89 mobile phones for every 100 people living in the countries classified as sub-Saharan Africa by the World Bank (2022 figures), but fewer than one landline (0.6) per 100 people.

Some African countries, like South Africa (~167) and Kenya (~122), are well over the world average of 108 mobile phones per 100 people. Nigeria is close with ~102.

But the percentage of people in Africa who use the internet remains low: 36% compared with 92% in the United States, according to World Bank 2021 figures. The global average was 63%.

In 2022 there were 489-million unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa, according to GSMA Intelligence’s 2023 report on the mobile economy in sub-Saharan Africa. That’s less than half (43%) of the population.

Only 287-million of them used mobile internet, which is a penetration rate of 25%. The cost of smartphones is a key reason why.

Only 51% of mobile connections in sub-Saharan Africa are smartphones and many people who live in areas with coverage still don’t use mobile internet.

As of 2022, only about 15% of people live in areas that aren’t covered by mobile networks, and they are mainly remote or rural.

The technology in most parts of the continent is still pretty basic, predominantly 2G and 3G. The G stands for generation. South Africa is in the process of retiring 2G and 3G. But things are changing rapidly and 4G connections are expected to almost double by 2030 to 49% of total connections, GSMA says.

GSMA estimates that mobile operators will spend $75-billion on their networks between now and 2030, mostly on 4G.

Two of the biggest mobile companies in Africa are MTN and Vodacom, both of which originated in South Africa.

Together they reported more than 450-million customers at the end of 2023. About 23% of Vodacom’s 186-million customers are in South Africa, but more than 80% of MTN’s 294.8-million subscribers are in other African countries.

MTN Nigeria generated a larger share of MTN’s group revenue in 2023 than South Africa.

Notebook