Mobile technologies and services contributed $240-billion to Africa’s economy in 2025, equivalent to 7.8% of GDP, supporting about 13-million jobs and generating $45-billion in public revenues.

This underlines the growing role of mobile connectivity in powering economic growth, innovation and digital transformation across the continent, the latest GSMA report, Mobile Economy Africa 2026, outlined.

Further, as the continent's mobile industry enters a new phase of development, with deepening digital adoption and connectivity continuing to support productivity, innovation and economic development, mobile technologies and services are expected to contribute $290-billion to Africa’s economy by 2030.

“Having connected millions of people and businesses over the last decade, the focus is increasingly shifting towards unlocking greater value through AI, digital services and new forms of innovation,” said GSMA director-general Vivek Badrinath, noting the digital shift from expanding network coverage to ensuring people, businesses and governments can fully benefit from the connectivity already in place.

According to GSMA Intelligence research, 79% of operators in Africa identify becoming a digital transformation partner as a primary enterprise objective, with operators increasingly focused on unlocking the full value of digital networks for consumers, businesses and governments.

“Across the continent, operators are evolving beyond their traditional role as connectivity providers to become digital transformation partners, deploying AI, expanding digital services and opening network capabilities to developers through standardised APIs,” Badrinath continued.

However, realising the digital opportunity will require continued investment, policies that encourage innovation and a shared commitment to ensuring that everyone can benefit from the opportunities digital technologies create.

“We also call on the broader technology supply chain, including those who manufacture the components that make devices possible, to reflect on how their own success is tied to a connected world, and to join us in closing the use gap and making that world more accessible and affordable for all.”

Meanwhile, Africa is home to more than 30% of the world’s languages, however, leading AI models remain predominantly trained on English and other high-resource languages.

Through initiatives such as the GSMA's “AI language models in Africa, by Africa, for Africa” programme, industry stakeholders are working to strengthen the data, compute, talent and policy foundations needed for African-led AI development.

The report also highlighted growing momentum behind GSMA open gateway, which enables operators to provide standardised network APIs to developers and enterprises.

“These capabilities are helping unlock new digital services while supporting fraud prevention, identity verification and digital trust across sectors including financial services, e-commerce and digital government,” Badrinath noted.

“Policy choices will play a critical role in determining whether Africa can fully capture this next wave of digital growth. Investment incentives, spectrum availability, affordability measures and regulatory certainty will all influence the pace of innovation, digital adoption and infrastructure deployment across the continent.”

The report goes on to warn that Africa’s greatest digital challenge is no longer network coverage, but adoption, with 63% of the population living within coverage of mobile broadband networks but not using mobile Internet. Currently, only 9% remain outside mobile broadband coverage.

“Affordability remains the single largest barrier to mobile Internet adoption across much of the continent, alongside digital skills gaps and other social barriers,” the report said, highlighting the importance of initiatives aimed at improving device affordability, expanding digital skills and creating a more inclusive digital ecosystem.

“To support the next phase of digital growth, the GSMA is calling for policies that encourage investment, improve affordability and accelerate digital adoption.”

Mobile operators across Africa are expected to invest over $76-billion in network infrastructure between 2024 and 2030.

Evidence from several African markets also demonstrates that reducing taxes on devices and digital services can help accelerate adoption and expand access to the benefits of the digital economy.