Demystifying Africa #3 — How Network Readiness and Smartphone Accessibility Can Drive Web3 Adoption
#3 — How Network Readiness and Smartphone Accessibility Can Drive Web3 Adoption
Africa is becoming increasingly connected, making the continent well poised to be disrupted by web3
Our ultimate goal is to onboard millions of Africans to Web3. The cornerstone of this vision is that the population needs to have access to fast and stable mobile connectivity, allowing users to be able to access the Web3 infrastructure.
In this article, we are going to give you an overview of the connectivity in Africa, in the context of other countries, further deliberating why Africa is well poised to be disrupted by the emerging crypto economy.
A high growth trajectory in network readiness
The first 4G LTE network was first available for the public to use in 2009. After a decade, 93% of the global population was covered by a mobile broadband signal. While connectivity in Africa has lagged, the continent as a whole is catching up at an astronomical speed. In 2019 Sub-Saharan Africa, 3G coverage expanded to 75% compared to 63% in 2017, while 4G doubled to nearly 50% compared to 2017. In a few years, the 4G coverage in Africa will be able to catch up to the global standard. By 2025, 3% of all mobile connections in Sub-Saharan Africa will be 5G. This small percentage number represents 35 million 5G users with enormous growth potential.
Accessing a high-speed network would require a compatible mobile device. 4G devices accounted for 83.9% of the smartphones shipped in the African market during Q4 2020 according to IDC, implying that the demand for high-speed networks among Africans soared. Combining the readiness of the network and compatibility of mobile devices, in 2020, 77% of the urban African population had access to 4G mobile networks.
Smartphones made accessible
At the end of 2020, almost every second mobile device connected to the internet in Africa was a smartphone, with smartphone adoption at 48%. This number is projected to reach 64% by 2025 — an expected growth of 16%.
Looking at the smartphone coverage in the Philippines, a developing country where play-to-earn was a great success last year, the smartphone penetration rate in 2020 was 72.1% while the projected rate in 2025 will be 77.1%, expecting a growth of 5%. With Africa catching up at a phenomenal speed, we see Africa has the same prerequisite of replicating the success of Web3 adoption in the Philippines.
Here are the projected top three markets for smartphone adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2025 — Jambo has a presence in all of these markets.
- Nigeria — 163 million
- South Africa — 89 million
- Kenya — 52 million
To put things into perspective again, only these 3 African countries represent more than triple the amount of smartphones compared to the Philippines, with a much bigger potential for further growth.
Driven by market demand, smartphone shipments into Africa grew 13.2% year on year in Q2 2021 to a total of 22.8 million devices (with annualized shipments of approximately 100 million). It may come as a surprise to many people — the majority of phones sold in Africa are from Transsion, a mobile phone manufacturing corporation that owns giant brands like Tecno, Itel, and Infinix. The three brands altogether dominate Africa’s smartphone space at 47.3% market share. Samsung and Xiaomi followed in second and third place with respective unit shares of 21.3% and 6.1%.
Transsion brands’ success can be attributed to its dedication to drive the cost down in the pursuit of making smartphones accessible to all Africans as well as tailoring its products to the needs of the African market — with features like camera exposures calibration for darker skin tone, and offering dual SIM functionality, a feature well sought after in the region since African users typically use more than one SIM card at a time to save money — it is cheaper for users to call or text someone on the same network, so owning multiple SIMs means enjoying cheaper calls and texts over multiple networks.
Different verticals, same ethos — we are no stranger to the localization strategy adopted by Transsion. We believe that each geographical region has its cultural nuances. That’s why Jambo focuses a lot of energy on bringing a locally adjusted Web3 education and experience to our community.
Spur in data usage
The impact of having a readily available high-speed network and affordable mobile devices can already be seen — the data usage is skyrocketing from 2.2 GB per user per month now to a projected 9 GB in 2026.
The spur in data usage shows that the African population is becoming more digitally savvy, or even digitally native. Naturally, the demand for digital content is on the rise. The blurring of boundaries between digital and real lives, it’s in Africa’s best interest to also discover a new financial ecosystem that is being powered by Web3 applications and innovative models.
Replicating the success in the Philippines, with a much larger market
We are working hard to replicate the success in the Philippines to Africa. The Philippines started with a higher smartphone coverage and a projected penetration rate of 77.1% in 2025. Although Africa is still catching up, reaching a projected penetration rate of 64% by 2025, in real life, due to the vastness of the continent, we are looking at a much larger addressable market.
On a side note, we can also assume a lot of current mobile phone usage is left unrecorded — meaning the projected penetration rate could be larger.
That is why we think Africans are ready to enjoy the disruption Web3 is about to bring to the entire continent.
We will be sharing more interesting insight into the African market, and how Jambo plans to navigate the market and spearhead the massive Web3 adoption in Africa. Stay tuned!
About Jambo
Jambo is building the Web3 super app that will educate, bank and entertain the continent. Jambo aims to pioneer the largest, most influential Web3 user acquisition portal across the continent through “learn, play, earn.” Jambo serves as the bridge between Africa and applications from around the world seeking to tap into the African market. The opportunity here is immense. We have a long-term vision of realizing financial prosperity for Africans.
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