Africa's biggest conference is kicking off in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. The three day conference will see industry leaders attend seminars and meetings to address the issues faced when it comes to mobile penetration in Africa. A lot of these challenges include a lack of broadband infrastructure, high data costs, lack of electricity in rural areas and low purchasing power in the majority of the population. Mobile phones will account for a tenth of Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020.
Market analysts Ovum expect mobile broadband connections, which stood at 147m in 2014, to account for a substantial share of the mobile market, forecasting a rise to 76% at the end of 2020.The growth in access to smartphones has led to innovations and democratization in many African countries. In Kenya for example, mobile banking which was launched in 2007 now extends financial inclusion for 20 million Kenyans with close to thirty billion dollars in transactions in 2015.
The Arab Spring and protests in Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Burundi gained traction as a result of mobile penetration.
With that being said it will be interesting to see the transformation over the next decade in Africa.