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Eye on
Africa
By
Tara
Seals
A
ccording to the African Development
Bank, Africa is the continent with
the world’s second-fastest growing
economy, and there’s little doubt that this
vibrant continent is making great strides,
with the economy expected to grow by
3.4 percent this year and 4.3 percent
in 2018, according to research in
the
African Outlook Report
.
International Agents
There are opportunities for service
providers and their partners that are
looking to participate in this market,
given that truly supercharging the
future revolves around improving
connectivity.
According to stats from Hoot-
suite, with the exception of North
Korea (where the internet is still
blocked), the countries with the low-
est levels of internet penetration are
all in Africa. Fewer than one in three
people across Africa has access
to the internet today, and current
growth trends suggest it will be well
into the 2020s before internet pen-
etration levels across the continent
pass the 50 percent mark.
At the same time, however, seven of
the 10 fastest-growing internet popula-
tions in the world are in the region, with
the number of users reported in Ethio-
pia more than tripling versus last year –
so there’s movement on this front.
Much of the most promising archi-
tecture for closing the gap is mobile;
African consumers are spending
more and more time on their mobile
screens, as this channel has become
the primary medium for connectivity
across the continent. In fact, We Are
Social’s
Digital in 2017
report shows
that 78 percent of web pages served
to web browsers in South Africa are
served to mobile devices. The num-
ber is greater than 80 percent in East
and West Africa. A large number of
these are feature phones, which ac-
counted for 56 percent of the market
last year, according to IDC. Smart-
phones grew 3.4 percent year on
year. In all, 215 million mobile hand-
sets were shipped in Africa during
2016, up 10.1 percent on 2015.
Interestingly, video is on the rise in the
region. Research from Twinpine shows that
78 percent of Kenyans and 60 percent of
Nigerians online watch videos using their
mobile phone. And, Hootsuite reported that
mobile social media use in Africa increased
by nearly 50 percent in 2016, although at
just 12 percent penetration across the re-
gion, there’s still plenty more room to grow.
More to Be Done
With connectivity growth in a stop-
start phase, there are many areas of op-
portunity for improvement where service
Map courtesy TeleGeography
Channel
Vision
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July - August, 2017
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