From 2007 to 2012, Africa’s number of mobile connections more than doubled from 283 million to 735 million, according to global mobile communications industry body the GSMA.
In the last ten years, Africa has also overtaken Europe and Latin America to become the world’s second biggest market for handsets after Asia, says the GSMA.
And US based research firm Manifest Mind LLC forecasts that Africa’s booming mobile phone market is to almost quadruple in size from a value of $60 billion in 2013 to $234 billion by 2020.
In light of these key figures regarding Africa’s mobile phone market, ITWeb Africa has put together a list of the continent’s top ten biggest mobile phone markets.
The below figures are sourced from GSMA Intelligence numbers which were recorded in Q4, 2012.
| Country | Connections | %Prepaid | %3G | Population | SIM Penetration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | 112.5 million | 97% | 7% | 168.8 million | 67% |
| Egypt | 98.5 million | 95% | 16% | 84.7 million | 116% |
| South Africa | 67.9 million | 81% | 26% | 50.9 million | 133% |
| Morocco | 39 million | 95% | 18% | 32.8 million | 119% |
| Kenya | 30.7 million | 99% | 17% | 43.3 million | 71% |
| Sudan | 27.5 million | 98% | 21% | 37 million | 74% |
| Tanzania | 26.9 million | 99% | 14% | 48.4 million | 56% |
| Ghana | 25.1 million | 99% | 9% | 25.8 million | 97% |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 20.1 million | 99% | - | 70.5 million | 28% |
| Ivory Coast | 18.1 million | 93% | - | 20.8 million | 87% |
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