With over a billion subscribers, mobile is becoming Africa's spearhead

Audio 02:10

(Illustrative image) (CC) Erik Hersman / Flickr

By: Dominique Desaunay Follow

3 min

Unveiled on October 8 during the New Africa-France Summit, a new study reveals that Africa has more than a billion mobile subscriptions.

But the continent suffers from the lack of network infrastructure to support this surge in telecom uses, reminding us of the urgent need to set up greater cooperation between Africa and Europe, the report concludes.

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If the Covid-19 pandemic has obviously slowed down the development of the African economy, the health crisis has also contributed to accelerating the digital transformation of the continent, indicates in the preamble the new publication of the European think tank

IDATE DigiWorld.

And in this contrasting landscape of African Tech, the smartphone has become the spearhead of economic development with 1.3 billion mobile subscriptions allowing applications to connect to the Internet.

Africa has long demonstrated this by becoming the world champion in mobile banking, and the sub-Saharan region alone accounts for two-thirds of global transactions made from a mobile.

But these figures, which highlight the rapid adoption of digital applications by populations, also demonstrate the low level of investment on the part of the international community to allow Africa to go fully digital, analyzes Jacques Moulin, Managing Director. of IDATE.

“ 

The evolution towards all digital in Africa is underway, we have known and we are still experiencing the boom in

mobile money,” he explains.

A success which allows us to observe that the African continent is the second market for mobile telephony. Today, it is no longer possible to talk about the African economy without mentioning digital developments, but it is also not possible to talk about the challenges of Africa and in particular the development of the continent without considering the challenges that await him in this post-Covid period. The continent finds itself faced with the need to accelerate its investment plans, both in terms of infrastructure but also in terms of the use of technologies and support for new mobile users by developing inclusion programs for populations, in other words, to ensure their training in digital uses.

 "

The essential digital development for a digital Africa

According to the new IDATE report, digital inclusion must be seen as the pillar for the ongoing economic development of African countries.

This is why the African Union has made inclusion one of the guiding principles of its digital transformation strategy in Africa for the period 2020-2030.

For now, most innovations are concentrated in the development of online services and mobile applications, in the areas of health, energy, transport, agriculture and inclusion. financial support of the populations, with however the declared will of African decision-makers to promote women's access to entrepreneurship.

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