Africa’s digital divide shifts from network coverage to internet adoption as connectivity nears universality, according to a new GSMA report.
Bonface Orucho, bird story agency
A decade ago, Africa’s digital challenge was still largely about access.
Today, only 9% of Africans remain outside mobile broadband coverage, according to a new report by the GSM Association (GSMA), suggesting the continent’s connectivity challenge has shifted from network reach to internet adoption.
The report, The Mobile Economy Africa 2026, says 63% of Africans now live within mobile broadband coverage but do not use mobile internet.
According to the GSMA, the finding marks a significant change from earlier years when a lack of network coverage was the dominant barrier to digital participation.
Historical GSMA data show that the mobile broadband coverage gap in Africa stood at about 50% in 2014, excluding the Mediterranean region. By 2019, that figure had fallen to 25%.
The latest report suggests coverage has continued to improve.
According to the GSMA, only 9% of Africans remain outside mobile broadband coverage today.
Released on June 16th, the report shows that the mobile industry contributed US$240 billion to Africa’s economy in 2025, equivalent to 7.8% of GDP.
The sector also supported approximately 13 million jobs and generated US$45 billion in public revenues.
Mobile technologies and services are expected to contribute US$290 billion to Africa’s economy by 2030 as digital adoption continues to expand.
The report argues that the continent’s challenge has evolved from extending coverage to ensuring people can benefit from existing connectivity.
Affordability remains the largest barrier to adoption across many African markets, alongside digital skills gaps and other social barriers.
The GSMA says mobile operators across Africa are increasingly focusing on digital services, artificial intelligence, enterprise solutions, and platform-based business models.
According to the report, 79% of operators in Africa identify becoming a digital transformation partner as a primary enterprise objective.
The shift is visible across several regions.
In Kenya, Safaricom’s smartphone financing programme enabled the sale of more than two million devices by May 2025, according to the report.
The operator says smartphone ownership on its network increased from 44% to 50% of connections over the same period.
Safaricom launched its Lipa Mdogo Mdogo programme in 2020 in partnership with Google, allowing customers to acquire smartphones through daily installments starting from KES20.
The company says more than 1.3 million customers have accessed devices through the programme, while a separate device-financing update released alongside its 2025 results showed that cumulative smartphone sales had surpassed 2 million units.
The operator has also backed local manufacturing through East Africa Device Assembly Kenya, a partnership launched in 2023 between mobile operators and handset manufacturers. According to Safaricom, more than 360,000 smartphones worth KES21 billion had been assembled locally by March 2024, with annual production targeted at three million devices.
In Ethiopia, Ethio Telecom is pursuing a similar strategy through digital finance.
In November 2025, the operator and Awash Bank launched Tila, a non-collateral digital credit and device financing platform delivered through the telebirr mobile money ecosystem. The programme allows customers to acquire smartphones through long-term installment plans and uses AI-assisted credit scoring based on telebirr transaction histories.
According to Ethio Telecom, telebirr had reached more than 57.5 million users by the time of the launch, while digital lending partnerships had already disbursed more than 31.6 billion Ethiopian birr to 15 million customers. The operator says the device financing programme is designed to help citizens, particularly those in rural, agricultural and underserved communities, access smartphones and digital services that would otherwise remain unaffordable.
The company has also introduced cloud-based Znexus smartphones and says it aims to facilitate sales of up to two million devices annually through partnerships with manufacturers and financial institutions.
In Rwanda, Airtel has introduced handset financing programmes aimed at improving smartphone ownership among lower-income consumers.
West Africa, on the other hand, offers examples of how policy changes can influence adoption.
In Ghana, the government abolished the electronic transfer levy on mobile money transactions in April 2025.
According to the report, mobile money transaction volumes were 31% higher year-on-year by December 2025 following the policy change.
Africa now accounts for 11% of global operator commitments under the GSMA Open Gateway initiative.
The report identifies South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Cameroon among markets where Open Gateway services are already being tested or commercialized.
According to the GSMA, mobile operators are expected to invest more than US$76 billion in network infrastructure across Africa between 2024 and 2030.
The report says future growth will depend on factors including spectrum availability, investment incentives, affordability measures and regulatory certainty.
Fifth-generation mobile technology is expected to account for 21% of total mobile connections in Africa by 2030.
bird story agency
Useful link for editors:https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-economy/africa/
