Boom times for Africa’s digital economy
There’s no shortage of buzz from AfricaCom in Cape Town South Africa this year. With a booming digital economy it’s easy to understand why.
According to a report released by Informa research this week, Africa has more than 616 million mobile subscriptions, making it the world’s second largest mobile market overtaking the Americas and Europe in last 6 months.
Analysts point to expensive landline connections in Africa as driving high mobile usage, with expectations for mobile subbrsciptions to grow to 735 million by the end of 2012.
The mobile industry is no doubt an enabler of economic development in the region. According to the GSMA’s Africa Mobile Observatory for 2011, the mobile industry in Africa contributes US 56 billion to the regional economy, equivalent to 3.5 percent of total GDP, employing over 5 million Africans. But the potential is untapped: the report states that 36 percent of Africans within the 25 largest African mobile markets still have no access to mobile services.
Innovative mobile services have been launched across the continent supporting agriculture, education, healthcare and banking. Africa is now at the forefront of the mobile money industry – just look at the latest developments in Nigeria.
The potential of cloud in Africa is also creating buzz. According to Informa, the broadband experience in Africa becoming increasingly ‘nomadic,’ with broadband connections over cellular networks exceeding 250 million by the end of 2015, compared with 15 million fixed connections, 70 percent of which will be DSL. Mobile-broadband enabled cloud computing solutions such as PC as a Service, Education Suite and eHealth give operators many opportunities to bring cloud services to the next billion.
Highly-valued, relevant and local content is another driver for the uptake of internet services. However, while there are many international offerings available, the domestic content provider is still nascent, according to the Com World Series blog.
The benefits that broadband, mobile telephony services and cloud services can bring in Africa spread beyond the economic gains and development, but open up for improved financial, healthcare and education services.
Regulation practices must continue to improve, with more spectrum allocated for mobile broadband.
By working in partnership with the ICT industry, mobile operators, regulators, multilateral organizations and African governments can continue this remarkable growth.
Written by Erik Kruse
Erik´s specialties are future consumer demands, industry dynamics and how the ICT world will evolve over the next 10 years. At Ericsson, he has worked on company strategies and research into future trends and requirements.
