Mobile Telephones

Mobile phones are a success story in Africa, where countries have registered the world’s highest mobile phone growth – ranging from 50% to 400% in the last 3 years.

African countries have made great strides in widening access to mobile phone services, which have overtaken traditional fixed lines as the preferred method of communicating by telephone.  The AICD study has calculated that 91% of the urban population of sub-Saharan Africa have access to voice services.  In rural areas, the figure is only 42%.

Most of Africa’s rural poor live in areas where mobile phone services are still financially viable for participation by private operators, but where regulation prevents a competitive market from operating.  The amount of public finance required to achieve near universal access in sub-Saharan Africa is small as long as a suitable enabling environments are in place.