The GSMA has opened a new office in Nairobi, located in the city’s Innovation Hub (iHub).Focusing on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers, designers and researchers, the iHub will become a centre for the GSMA’s work in Africa.
The office was opened by Anne Bouverot, Director General of the GSMA and Chris Locke, Managing Director of the GSMA’s Mobile Development Programme. The GSMA has been active in Africa for many years and the new office will bring them closer to the operators and governments, helping to expand network capacity in Africa and address the coverage crunch in terms of spectrum availability.
“It is an exciting time to launch our new office in Africa, as the region is an increasingly vibrant and critical market for the mobile industry representing, over 10 per cent of the global market”, said Bouverot. “The rapid pace of mobile adoption has delivered an explosion of innovation and huge economic benefits in the region, directly contributing US$ 32 billion to the Sub-Saharan African economy, or 4.4 per cent of GDP and, with necessary spectrum allocations and transparent regulation, the mobile industry could also fuel the creation of 14.9 million new jobs in the region between 2015 and 2020.”
Over the years, Africa has seen some of the highest levels of mobile internet usage. In Zimbabwe and Nigeria, mobile accounts for over half of all web traffic at 5.8% and 57.9% respectively. However, despite rapid growth, mobile penetration amongst individuals remains low with unique penetration at 30%, meaning more than two-thirds of the population have yet to acquire their first mobile phone.
According to the GSMA’s Wireless Intelligence data, mobile connections in Sub-Saharan Africa passed the 500 million mark during the first quarter of 2013, and this is expected to grow by a further 50 per cent over the next five years.
The pace of mobile adoption in Africa has led to an explosion of innovation and has brought huge economic benefits to the region:
- Contributing US$ 32 billion to the economy
- The mobile industry has helped create 3.5 million jobs
- With the necessary spectrum allocations and transparent regulation, the mobile industry will help to create a further 14.89 million jobs between 2015 and 2020
- The mobile industry has invested US$16.5 billion over the past five years across five key regions in Africa
In recent years, Kenya has been identified as a global leader in mobile money transfer services via M-PESA, a service launched by the country’s largest mobile operator Safaricom in 2007. What started as a simple way to extend banking services to the unbanked citizens of Kenya has now evolved into a mobile payment system based on accounts held by the operator, with transactions authorised and recorded in real time using secure SMS. Since its launch, M-PESA has grown to reach 15 million registered users and contributes 18 per cent of Safaricom’s total revenue.
