26 Nov Stats and Insights into Mobile Subscribers and Smartphone Penetration Across Sub-Saharan Africa for eCommerce Companies Looking For Online Payment

Posted at 10:48h

Some great insights from GSMA on African mobile and mobile payment services that are relevant for multinational eCommerce companies looking for online payment and eCommerce payment from an African payment provider.

There are currently around 500m unique mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa and smartphone penetration is expected to grow from 39% in 2018 to 66% in 2025.  Mobile internet user growth predictions are from 239m mobile internet users in 2018 to almost 500m in 2025, more than doubling.  

By 2025, half the population of Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to be mobile subscribers.  Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest growing region in the world, and Nigeria and Ethiopia are the leading countries by mobile subscriber growth. Nigeria is a leader in eCommerce and Online Payments and Ethiopia is growing very rapidly albeit off a low base.  They both have the advantage of large young populations.

The biggest growth demographic is young adults who are entering the mobile economy for the first time, called digital natives. They haven’t had to learn about the mobile, they grew up with it.  This bodes well for their participation in the digital economy and their ability to become eCommerce consumers with ease.

Smartphone penetration will more than double from 300m in 2018 to almost 700m users in 2025.  

All of the above metrics are great news for eCommerce companies entering the Sub-Saharan Africa region.  Combined with the increasingly more payment-able consumers, a mobile money drive for financial inclusion, and card schemes driving card issuing, the opportunity to grow an eCommerce business has never been better.    If you just do a reasonable job, the organic growth in the consumer market will take care of business growth.

If you are an eCommerce company expanding to the continent, please contact us now for your mobile money and card collections at the checkout in Sub-Saharan Africa 

 

Thank you to https://www.gsma.com/r/mobileeconomy/sub-saharan-africa/ for the inspiration for this article