{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Africans got shoes, and they want fast data now - Comment
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Africans got shoes, and they want fast data now
On Thursday, GSMA, the global industry body of mobile operators, released a report that said growth in Africa's mobile phone users is likely to slow sharply in the next five years.
GSMA's Africa director was quoted saying he was "very surprised" by the development. The growth of mobile phone use in Africa has been fastest in the world, galloping along at 13 per cent in the first half of the decade.
Now, between 2015 and 2020, subscriber growth is expected to slow to 6 per cent.
The main reason for this expected drop off, the report said, is the lack of commercial logic in setting up network coverage in many rural areas, where the majority of Africans live.
GSMA's projections may come true or, again, they may not. One never knows with Africa, there are always too many factors hidden out of sight — and sometimes in plain view.
Studies in several African countries have shown that poor people would rather walk to work, or go hungry, than not have money to buy airtime for their phones.
So, even if people are poor, they will spend the little they have to buy a cheap mobile phone and airtime. And when they become slightly better off, they spend their new fortunes on phones.
A while back, I visited a place in Kenya's Pokot region. It had the highest ownership of solar-powered mobile phones you will probably see in East Africa. It came about because a change in the local cattle keeping brought new wealth, and there was no electricity.
The residents rigged up solar power phone chargers, and would ride beyond the area to find a phone signal. Safaricom soon noticed a lot of activity from "nowhere" and, intrigued, sent its technical team to snoop around in the Pokot bush.
What they found surprised and delighted them. They built a tower in the area, and watched the money roll in. There are many possibilities out there in the African wilderness.
The bigger problem in East Africa and elsewhere on the continent when it comes to the broader digital business, are the so-called last mile issues – delivering connections to the end user.
We are surrounded by fibre, but have gone through four providers to get a decent broadband provider in the office; we are soon eloping with a fifth one.
The growth of mobile phones and related services, like mobile money, has happened in Africa partly out of negative factors.
The old telecoms providers were horrible, and the bureaucracy of getting a landline could kill you. Their customer service was crappy. And we had no roads to our towns and villages. Mobile operators leapfrogged those nightmares and throve. We were unbanked, so mobile money succeeded.
The time has come when providers of digital services, and everyone else for that, begin to think of serving an Africa that has something.
Right now, if you complain that your Internet service is not fast enough, you still get those "You should be thankful you have any Internet at all" kind of replies from your provider.
The next generation of companies that figure out how to serve the Africa that wears shoes, and not only the one that is barefoot, will find customers and make money in places that some think have run out of juice today.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com). Twitter@cobbo3
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