White Label Devices And Local Brands Boom Key Growth Engine For Africa

At 12% of the global subscriber base , that makes Africa the second largest mobile-de-pendent region behind Asia Pacific. Bottom line? Mobile matters.

- Dominique Friedl

Why did Africa see such tremendous growth in mobile? Changes in the mobile ecosystem such as newly launched broadband networks, coupled with growing customer demand to access services onthe-go, stimulated white label companies and energized Africa’s local brands.

The rise of the Android operating system, an open ecosystem that allowed innovation in both high- and low-end smartphones, along with the support of mobile system-on-a-chip companies, provided the necessary foundation for these white label and local brands to build affordable, high-quality products for a broad spectrum of customer needs.

And build they did. Local, white label and Chinese brands dominated the market in the first quarter of 2016, as 15 of the top 20 mobile phone shipment vendors in Africa.

While people in developed countries are certainly still surfing the web and playing with high-tech gadgets, it’s clear the rest of the world is catching up. Smartphone use in emerging economies has nearly doubled since 2013, and by the end of last year, there were 557 million unique mobile subscribers in Africa.

Digital Inclusion

This expansion of global connectivity and mobile internet adoption, otherwise known as Digital Inclusion, extends both economic and social benefits to unconnected populations, fueling a cycle that reduces poverty, improves infrastructure and services, and further increases internet access and usage.

According to GMSA, last year alone, the mobile ecosystem in Africa contributed more than US$150 billion to the economy, generating 6.7% of gross domestic product.