A recent study conducted by Afrobarometer has revealed that five African countries have over 94% mobile phone ownership. The said countries are namely Gabon (96%), Morocco (96%), Côte d’Ivoire (94%), Mauritius (94%), and eSwatini (94%).
Afrobarometer notes that the survey was also carried out in 34 African countries, revealing that 24 countries had between 75% and 93% mobile ownership, while five countries had below 75% ownership. The countries in the below-75% mobile phone ownership category are Niger (63%), Mozambique (62%), Ethiopia (59%), Malawi (57%), and Angola (57%). Meanwhile, the continental average was 84%.
The researcher indicated that this seemingly high average is due to the actions implemented by telecom operators over the years to market affordable phones. Most of the phones they marketed were feature phones, not smartphones.
According to Statista, “feature phones make up a significant share of the mobile phone market in Africa, in contrast to many other regions around the world where smartphones make up almost the entire market. More than half of the 40 to 50 million mobile phones shipped in Africa per quarter are feature phones. In 2022, smartphone shipments totalled 19.7 million units in the first quarter, while almost 22 million feature phones were shipped.”
This is one of the reasons why the number of mobile Internet users remains relatively low in Africa, although the rate of cell phone ownership is high. Compared to the average rate of cell phone ownership on the continent, which is 84% out of 34 countries surveyed, the internet access rate is 45%, according to Afrobarometer.
During 2021, in Gabon, while the mobile phone ownership rate was 96%, the internet access rate was 66%. In Côte d’Ivoire, the internet access rate was 52% against 77% for Mauritius, 75% for Morocco and 55% for eSwatini. Only one citizen out of five had both a mobile phone and access to the internet in Malawi (20 %), Niger (20 %), and Ethiopia (16 %).
