Growing investment in Africa's mobile networks by telecommunications companies, as well as market ready electronic trading platforms, constitute Sub-Saharan Africa's greatest advantages as an investment destination and potentially the world's new economic hub in the next ten years.

Experts at Frost & Sullivan said in a report Mega Trends in Africa that "an $80 billion investment in mobile networks across the continent will potentially create an opportunity for 80% mobile phone penetration by 2020".

Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are among the African countries that have boosted mobile telephony usage. Other countries such as Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania and others are also ramping up mobile telephony and mobile money platforms.

Frost & Sullivan says by 2020, "mobile transactions (will) account for 75% of all banking transactions ... with the value of transaction expected to reach $300 billion". Other experts said this represented massive opportunities for ease of commerce and business transactions, which are key in attracting investors to the continent.

"A possible cashless African economy will have 520 million Africans opting for mobile wallets by 2020," said Mani James, Frost & Sullivan manager for Africa and Archana Vidyasekar, team leader for the Visionary Innovation Research Group.

Africa's evolving digital payment systems could also potentially result in intra-African trade accounting for 23% of the total trade volumes. This holds the potential for digital payments to plump up to a $1 billion market, with mobile & e-learning also projected to witness high growth.

By 2025, Africa will be the world's second fastest growing region, spurred by its youthful working age population that is hungry for mobile devices and services and other value propositions.