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Mobile Phone Users in Sub-Saharan Africa Rise 44%

By on November 14, 2012

From the launch of the GSM mobile service in Nigeria in 2001 and subsequent spread of the service to other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, skeptics have held the view that the service and the use of mobile phones may not be accessible to the lower-class.

But that is a different story in 2012 as a recent report by the Global Mobile Service Association (GSMA) revealed an amazing statistics by study that the number of mobile phone users   have grown to a proportional 475 million an exponential growth in the Sub-Saharan African region.

It can be recalled that in the 2011 Nigerian economic report the Telecommunications sector apart from the Oil and Gas Sector was the fastest revenue generator for the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the 2006 International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and World Conference on Information Technology in Tunis, Tunisia. Mr Babacar Diop the President of the Conference then predicted that Africa will become a major driver of the mobile technology industry and that is seemingly fulfilled today.

Major Mobile technology firms like Nokia, Apple, Samsung, RIM, LG, Sagem etc have enjoyed  huge sales of their products in Sub-Saharan Africa and some have been under pressure to establish their plants in some of the countries.

Even  foreign GSM providers like Airtel and Etisalat have made unprecedented profit margins from the service provided that they have seen this region as a very lucrative market they would not want to slip away.

Mr Tom Phillips the Chief Government and Regulatory Officer of the GSMA believes the  Mobile Industry has revolutionized the African Technology Industry, attesting to the fact that the Industry has experienced 50 percent growth per year.

Still from the report about 3.5 million Full-time Jobs have been realized through the sector, While  the Information Technology Industry has experienced innovative transformations in Nations like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda.