Scoping through from the lens of an analyst, Africa, boasts of an ongoing radical technological innovation that scholars only get overwhelmingly bewildered given the continent’s long history of abject digital ignorance and in exposure, for mobile connectivity to have taken this height.
It’s a sign of rapid growth, reflecting the benefits from globalization and civilization.
Africa is currently fast tracked to having one of the highest mobile network penetration rates fuelled by high-speed internet and the expansion of modern technological products that constantly aims to offer elevated mobile network connectivity experience.
Taking the bull by its head, the continent has strived to foster a vibrant community of tech experts where innovative solutions to challenges fronting Africa’s tech landscape are present. Tech enthusiasts are constantly motivated to harness the power packed technological tools meant to easen data and mobile connection experiences.
This article, therefore romanticizes the objectives of giving holistic review on the impact of mobile connectivity, digital infrastructure, confronting possible challenges and hopping on opportunities to develop the technological industry in Africa, with hopes that this analysis serves as a professional measure for tech experts to adequately scale Africa’s growth in global statistics and also attract foreign investors to join in the current digital evolution going on in the continent.
It’s no longer news that the expansion of high-speed internet and mobile networks has culminated into a transformative force, reshaping the involvement rate of users that automatically populates the online space.
According to the GSM Association (GSMA), 450 million unique people subscribed to mobile networks in Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2020 representing a 46% penetration rate of her population.
By 2025, this figure is expected to exceed the 50% rate covering about 615 million subscribers of mobile networks in the continent which would be a groundbreaking history and positions the continent ripe for global investments and collaboration, stretching further the advantages it would incur (BCG Global).
High-speed internet gained momentum after 4G networks were adopted. In 2022, users of 4G covered 50% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population with substantial investments being made to expand this coverage further.
Countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa are already on the headway to hop on 5G networks, which latest statistics from Nigerian Communication Commission portal prove that 0.83% of Nigerians are already subscribers.
In 2023, MTN, one of Africa’s foremost mobile networks, launched its 5G network in Nigeria in selected cities signalling the significance of enhanced mobile connectivity (References: BCG Global & Ventures Africa.
The internet in Africa is now widely used by many not just evident in the number of mobile subscribers but majorly on the extensive use of internet services on other online related issues.
Mobile penetration in the continent is progressive and this sits right with the GSMA data on the growth of internet usage in Africa. The data indicates that users in Sub-Saharan Africa grew by 26% between 2019 and 2022.
Scholars binge on futuristic guesses as anticipation builds to having a 475 million drastic increase of mobile service internet users in 2025, representing 39% of the population – Ventures Africa.
This heavy percentage of mobile internet users informs tech developers in Africa to create unique applications that cater to solve problems in different sectors.
These applications are digitized software packages that help enhance streamlining operations from individual sectors to achieve maximal productivity.
Applications like M-Pesa in Kenya and Flutterwave in Nigeria are proofs to give edge in the finance industry by proffering easy payment methods without having to break a sweat.
This also spreads to other sectors like mTIBA for the healthcare industry, enabling remote health consultations, managing health resources and improving overall health care services – Ventures Africa & Business Insider Africa.
Impact of Mobile Connectivity on Sectors
The rise of mobile users has robustly shaped the tech outlook in Africa such that its impact is shed on diverse sectors to improve industries and the economies of countries. Here’s some of the perks of increased mobile connectivity in sectors:
1. Agriculture: Merely thinking of agriculture, who would have ever thought this can be mixed with tech. Surprisingly, mobile applications are created to provide farmers and agricultural enthusiasts with modern information surrounding weather patterns, market prices, new farming techniques, implements, etc to increase productivity rate.
These apps have advanced to the stage where farmers interact directly with middlemen and wholesalers who can purchase agricultural products easily without having physical dialogues. Some of these apps are Farmcrowdy and Twiga Foods.
2. Education: Mobile connectivity has transcended education, especially academic learning to electronic-based. Applications are created to enable students to learn from tutors from the comfort of their homes.
These apps are designed to accommodate lectures, submission of assignments, presentations, tests and examinations.
To bridge educational apps, people can obtain degrees from anywhere in the world without being in the classroom or physically present. Platforms like Eneza Education, uLesson, Alison, Udemy, Coursera, all provide limitless access to quality education.
3. Healthcare: As earlier hinted, health care can now be easily accessed on mobile applications built to facilitate healthcare consultations, prescriptions and monitoring, personalized healthcare tracking and lots of other benefits.
Examples of Apps in this sector are Hello Doctor and Vezeeta whose technological contributions enhance the access of healthcare in Africa.
Setbacks
The technological advancement in Africa has blossomed to enviable height, regardless of this feat, some challenges still lurk within to achieve a full-circle digital development.
Some of the factors include:
1. High Costs of Deployment: The use of high-speed internet demands high income data purchases, subscribing to high cellular packages.
This is even more difficult where in some remote areas there is little or no network infrastructure, hence the purchase of wireless mobile networks for operations.
This is a challenge, calling for more infrastructures to be built and prices for data packages be moderated.
2. Regulatory Barriers: African countries have different laws governing mobile networks, this hinders the possibility of enabling a wider network facility that could cater for the expansion of one or more proximity-related countries.
Cross-border laws should be considerably enacted to aid the growth of the mobile connectivity ecosystem.
3. Limited Access to Electricity: For the longest, most African countries struggle to maintain a constant source of electricity, making this a factor that hinders the smooth operations of so many sectors.
This also affects mobile networks as electricity is needed to power up some infrastructures needed to ensure reliability and effective performance.
4. Digital Literacy: This is knowledge of digital operations and tools expected to be known by users, unfortunately, a lot of Africans hop on applications and online sites with low level of fundamental knowledge of the apps.
This creates the tendencies of abuse and misuse, breaching the regulatory framework guiding the softwares.
Although there’s an increase in mobile penetration, this is a barrier against maximizing benefits of digital connectivity.
Opportunities to look out for
The future of technology in Africa glimmers in hope as the list below sheds significant opportunities that lies ahead:
- 5G Networks: The advent of 5G, although not popularly accessible, promises a huge revolution for the tech community. The 5G network would achieve speedy network connectivity and lower latency rates. This would give rise to the polarization of difficult super tech instruments such as IoT(Internet of Things), smart cities and autonomous vehicles.
- Public-Private Partnerships: Partnerships between the government and private individuals are seeming more possible as there’s huge return on investment in technology. This collaboration would further enhance digital technological infrastructures giving spaces for tech enthusiasts to have a more conducive space to explore their tech initiatives.
- Satellite Internet: This is an alternate Internet service provider that relies on satellite dishes for network services. This invention contributes to the high-speed connectivity in remote areas where absent traditional wired network connection. Companies like SpaceX and OneWeb are already on the go exploring satellite-based internet for smooth surfing of the web.
- Blockchain Technology: This is a decentralised digital system composed of a series of blocks, each containing a list of transactions. Each block is linked to the previous one, forming a chain. This digital invention enhances transparency and security in various sectors. So much so that when a transaction is recorded in a block and added to the blockchain, it is extremely difficult to alter due to the cryptographic linkage of blocks. This in the future looks really nice.
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: The rise of AI and ML technologies are crucial to the ongoing complexities associated with technology. These systems are programmed to address a bulk load of concerns ranging from sector to sector. It’s all encompassing and is designed to ease humans and their capabilities.
Conclusion
Technological advancements have undoubtedly led to the expansion of mobile network users especially on the internet. Amidst the challenges facing this gigantic shift, it carves a form of transformation in Africa.
Digital applications are now in different dimensions contributing to solving dynamic problems in various sectors.
Tech experts should seize this opportunity to unlock new avenues for growth and creativity to drive socio-economic standards of her home countries and also achieve a poised technological balance for Africa amongst its global counterparts.
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