NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Mobile use in Africa is expected to increase 20-fold in the next five years. Despite unreliable electricity and a lack of physical connectivity, Africans both urban and rural have embraced mobile technology, making it fertile ground for the expansion of the telecoms industry. Here are 10 reasons why mobile rocks in Africa.”

1. Early Adopters

Fixed line penetration is historically low in Africa and the continent has leapt straight to mobile instead. The African mobile landscape has grown rapidly as a result of heavy investment and the liberisation of telco markets in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. In turn mobile telephony has become the pervasive mode of communication, for both voice and data, on the continent.