Mobile’s impact on the SDGs in Sub-Saharan Africa

By the end of 2022, 490 million people subscribed to mobile services in Sub-Saharan Africa, representing 43% of the population – an increase of 170 million since 2015.

Moreover, during the same period, the number of mobile internet subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa more than doubled, rising from 120 million to 270 million people. This highlights how mobile represents a growing platform to accelerate Sub-Saharan Africa’s progress on the SDGs and to drive socioeconomic advancement in areas such as healthcare, education, digital commerce, industrial automation and smart city infrastructure. This is evidenced by the continued uptake of mobile money, which reached 763 million registered accounts in the region in 2022 (a year-on-year increase of 17%).

Despite strong progress in a number of areas, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the largest usage gap and coverage gap, impeding progress across a range of SDGs. Additionally, Sub-Saharan Africa has the second-largest gender gap, with the difference between male and female mobile ownership remaining relatively unchanged since 2017. This limits the region’s progress on SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

SDG mobile impact scores, Sub-Saharan Africa

Source: GSMA Intelligence

Key drivers of SDG mobile impact scores

Mobile broadband coverage and penetration, Sub-Saharan Africa

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Source: GSMA Intelligence

Mobile usage by activity, Sub-Saharan Africa

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Source: GSMA Intelligence

Data is sourced from the GSMA Intelligence Consumers in Focus Survey. The number of users is calculated by multiplying unique mobile subscribers by the percentage of survey respondents that performed a particular activity (e.g. reading the news) on a mobile phone. Unique subscriber data is sourced from GSMA Intelligence, combining data reported by mobile operators with the annual GSMA Intelligence Consumers in Focus Survey. The percentages show the proportion of mobile users engaging in a particular activity.

Case Studies

END USER STORY | Mobile money

Patience

Patience has found mobile money and mobile internet to be life-changing when it comes to her hair weave business. She is able to order materials online and pay using mobile money which, as well as being convenient, has also enabled her to save up the money she no longer needs to spend on bus fares. Patience advertises her hair weaves on Facebook and her customers pay her through mobile money.

I advertise my product through social media channels like WhatsApp and Facebook. I use mobile money to do every transaction that I do. So mobile money is really helping my business and it's making my life and that of my family so simple. My dream for the future is to expand my business. I think with the help of mobile money I will be able to get there."

Patience, Ghana

END USER STORY | Mobile internet

Fridah

Mobile internet has had a hugely positive impact on Fridah’s life as a farmer by connecting her to the rest of the world. During the rainy season, Fridah uses a weather app to tell her when she should leave her maize and sorghum out to dry. She also finds great value in supportive online groups like vet services and pesticide providers.

Here in the rural areas, without internet, you’re cut off from the modern world. Access to internet has really helped me as a farmer. If you leave your maize out in the open to dry, you simply refer to a weather app that gives you the precise time of rainfall.”

Fridah, Kenya

END USER STORY | Mobile internet

Florence

Mobile internet has made a huge difference to Florence’s life as a farmer. By posting photos to the internet, Florence was able to find help in diagnosing an infestation problem with her crops and was able to order the necessary pesticides. She uses WhatsApp to promote and take orders for her sukuma wiki crop and uses mobile internet to learn about weather patterns.

Life was difficult without the internet, especially when you needed something from a person who was far away. My farm was infested by army worms and they attacked our sorghum and maize. We took pictures and posted them on the internet and we were able to receive pesticides. Internet helped me during the COVID year. One of my children was a student. They received their tests via mobile and were able to participate."

Florence, Kenya

END USER STORY | Mobile internet

Aletcenter

Aletcenter first taught herself about bicycles through Google. Having access to this information led to her turning her hobby into a business. Now, by using Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, Aletcenter is able to list and sell her bicycles to customers, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. And thanks to mobile money, she has been able to take payments online.

COVID-19 has been a great challenge to us because many of us were not able to open our shops. But as for us, we had old stock which we would sell online. We normally post them on Facebook. As for the payments, they have been good because we have been using mobile transactions, mostly M-PESA, which is an awesome way of transacting.”

Aletcenter, Kenya

END USER STORY | Mobile internet and mobile money

Valentine

Valentine creates and sells dolls, wooden statues and raffia bags with raw materials she has bought using mobile money. Despite losing some orders during the Covid-19 lockdowns, she continued to promote her products using the mobile internet and collected payments through mobile money.

The way this lockdown was done gave us a lot of problems, especially for our sales. I started losing lots of customers, but one thing that really saved me was mobile money. They used to order things online, they would then send me money and it would really help me while I was struggling.”

Valentine, DRC

END USER STORY | Mobile internet

GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion

In this video we hear from some of the end users who are benefitting from these start-ups’ incredible projects, whether through increased access to smartphones, relevant products and digital skills, access to quality digital learning products, or help with bringing their small businesses online.

If Ensibuuko hadn't digitised our group, we would lose our savings just like that and if we were not given a smartphone, we wouldn't have access to Ensibuuko's digital loans. Digitalisation opened up my mind to new business ideas. It has exposed me to different apps that I enjoy and I also have access to marketplaces."

Monica Ojogaru

END USER CASE STUDY | Sanitation

Supporting waterless flush sanitation through mobile technology - Loowatt video

In 2015, Loowatt was awarded a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme to develop a suite of mobile services to track its waste collection processes, collect payments with mobile money and communicate better with its customers. Loowatt, in partnership with Airtel Madagascar, uses mobile technology to support the service and maintenance of waterless household toilets. Customers use mobile money to pay for collection services and SMS to schedule collections and maintenance. Loowatt personnel use the mobile app and web platform to manage operations and track waste from households to the treatment facility.

If we use pit toilets, we would be in trouble when they are full, whereas Loowatt has a systemic emptying service to avoid this kind of problem"

Lalaina, Madagascar

END USER CASE STUDY | Water

Digitising billing and meter reading for water utilities – Wonderkid

In May 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund awarded a grant to Wonderkid to help it develop a suite of mobile tools for four water utilities in Kenya. The grant supported a complaint management and tracking system that allows customers to report maintenance and upkeep issues. It also offered a mobile app for meter readers that allows meters to be photographed, helping to address disputes and verify meter readers’ activities in real time. A self-meter reading and payment system allows users to send their own meter reading via SMS and receive a preliminary bill with instructions for paying via mobile money using Safaricom’s M-Pesa.

I receive my bill on time, hence I am able to budget myself. Unlike before whereby we used to receive the bill very late, I am left with cash to buy food for my kids and even to pay school fees."

Miriam, Kenya

END USER CASE STUDY | Water

Using mobile money to bring clean water to rural Ghana – Safe Water Network

In September 2015, Safe Water Network received a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund to develop an app to digitise its manual water station data reporting systems for 37 water stations. In May 2018, Safe Water Network received another grant from our Innovation Fund to trial mobile money services and M2M connectivity for water ATMs and prepaid household meters in partnership with MTN Ghana.

It has helped me save a lot of money, because first, you had to pay someone to go to the river to get water for you but now I can easily get it at home any time, so it's realy helping"

Selali, Ghana

END USER CASE STUDY | Sanitation

Providing pit emptying services through a GIS-enabled app - KCCA

In 2017, KCCA was awarded a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund to improve access to safe and reliable faecal sludge collection, transportation and disposal services for the residents in the informal settlements of Kampala city, Uganda. The project scaled KCCA’s pilot GIS tracking system, enabled by a mobile app and a call centre, while promoting the use of mobile money in partnership with MTN Uganda. This has enabled KCCA to track sanitation service delivery, build capacity for private entrepreneurs and promote the pit emptying business. Over 5000 pit emptying jobs have been completed under the grant so far.

We'd like to thank KCCA for taking care of toilet sanitation. This immensely increases our neighbourhood health. It makes me happy as the chairwoman of our neighbourhood."

Namulindwa Patricia, Uganda

END USER CASE STUDY | Energy

Affordable, clean cooking through mobile technology in Tanzania – KopaGas

In 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded an Innovation Fund grant to KopaGas, to design a low-cost smart meter for Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) canisters. Through a PAYG model, customers were able to purchase affordable quantities of clean cooking via mobile money. The pilot improved access to clean cooking for 150 households and small food-stands

Since I started using gas, my cooking business has been much easier. I have a small restaurant that now runs on gas where I am now getting more customers because I get them more food in less time"

Selemani Mwalimu, Tanzania

END USER STORY | Energy

Changing lives through mobile-enabled solar-powered irrigation in Kenya - SunCulture

In 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded SunCulture a grant to design and scale solar-powered irrigation systems that make it cheaper and easier for farmers in Kenya to grow high-value fresh fruits and vegetables. The RainMaker is a solar-powered irrigation system aimed at smallholder farmers, utilising pay-as-you-go technology to ensure affordability and therefore extending access to water pumping solutions to underserved communities in the developing world, starting with Kenya.

I decided to buy the SunCulture pump to make my life easier and not constantly deal with the challenge of getting water from the well using a bucket all the time. Now I'm at least able to usee the irrigation method for my plants."

James Muruthi, Kenya

END USER CASE STUDY | Water

Delivering water to urban homes through smart metering and mobile payments - CityTaps

In 2017, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded CityTaps a grant to scale their prepaid water service platform to enable the urban poor to access affordable and safe running water at home. Their prepaid smart meter incorporates machine to machine (M2M) technology, which allows households to make micro-prepayments for their water at any time using mobile money. CityTaps is working in partnership with Orange Niger and the SEEN (Niger Water Utility Company) to trial 1,325 meters across Niamey, Niger.

"Since the new meter was installed, we have control over what we consume. We can do projections for a month, or two months if we have the money or we can do for a week or two weeks"

XXXXX, Niger

END USER STORY | Education

Ahlan Simsim, by Sesame Workshop - a groundbreaking initiative that delivers early learning and nurturing care to children and caregivers affected by the Syrian conflict.

Jiwan is a Syrian-Kurdish refugee living in Qushtapa Refugee Camp in Iraq. He works as a teacher and supports his wife and seven children aged 5 to 24. As an educator and active father, Jiwan appreciated the lessons in the Sesame videos.

END USER STORY | Energy

Community Solar Hubs

Sarah* is a 24-year South Sudanese refugee living in Rhino camp with 5 relatives. She is the head of her household and earns a living selling food in the trading centre where she earns between UGX 1,000 and 50,000 a day. Before using POPO, she did not have a power source in her house and she paid UGX 500 to charge her smartphone at the charging stations in the trading centre. POPO is her only source of power and she uses it for lighting her home, charging her phone and radio. Using the batteries has enabled her to charge her smartphone without fear of it getting lost or stolen at the charging stations, as it has before. With her phone charged, she is able to chat with her friends for a longer period, take photos and play games.

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Case Study

Orange and SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) scale up digital agriculture advisory service

Challenge

Smallholder farmers are an integral part of our food system, producing more than 30% of food globally. However, they remain financially excluded and increasingly vulnerable to changing climate patterns that affect their yields. Digital advisory services can help smallholder farmers overcome these challenges, drawing on a variety of sources to support agricultural decision-making.

Solution

Garbal is a digital advisory service for pastoralists and smallholder farmers launched by SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) in partnership with Orange.

It was launched in Mali in 2017, followed by Burkina Faso in 2019. Delivered through USSD and a call centre, Garbal is a digital-only service offering data on market prices, pasture quality and herd concentrations. It also provides information on techniques and practices for farming and livestock production, in addition to geo-satellite data on biomass availability, agro-meteorological information and weather forecasts. Garbal users pay a modest fee to access the service via SMS, airtime and mobile data. During the Covid-19 pandemic, existing partnerships between digital advisory providers, governments and development agencies deepened to support farmers in new ways. The organisations behind the Garbal service were already collaborating closely with the respective governments in Mali and Burkina Faso to design and define content, but in the early stages of the pandemic, they worked together to push health-related advice to farmers. This established Garbal as a channel for communicating messages of public interest to the pastoralists subscribed to the service. For example, after the recent decision in Benin to end cross-border movement of livestock, Garbal was used to keep pastoralists informed of movement restrictions and conditions.

Impact

To date, Garbal has received over 300,000 calls.^[7] There was an uptick in activity in the first year of the pandemic and the number of calls received by its call centre increased further in 2021 (a 32% increase year on year).^[8] Covid-related enquiries fell by 60% in 2021, indicating that pastoralists and smallholder farmers saw the value of the service beyond a source of information related to Covid-19. Overall, the service offers farmers and pastoralists more predictability and allows them to make decisions accurately with instant access to reliable information.

The SDG goals have helped to transform the mobile industry’s business model. Orange is proud to have integrated ESG at the heart of its strategy. We are deeply committed to reduce our GHG emissions (scopes 1, 2 and 3) by 45% by 2030, and to move towards circular economy. We also actively foster digital inclusion and digital empowerment with the aim of having 2.5 million beneficiaries of training workshops cumulated between 2021 to 2025.

Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Wholesale and GSMA board member, Orange

Case Study

Huawei and Unesco aim to improve access to digital education services in Africa

Challenge

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted education systems globally, intensifying existing educational challenges and inequalities. For instance, the lack of access to connectivity and devices hindered the ability of at least one third of students to engage in remote learning.^[17]

Solution

Huawei and Unesco are collaborating with the education ministries of Egypt, Ethiopia and Ghana, along with other stakeholders, to implement a three-year project (2020–2023) focused on developing technology-enabled open school systems.^[18] This initiative aims to create resilient and accessible school systems, enabling comprehensive education in both normal situations and times of crisis.

Impact

By 2024, the aim is to develop more than 140 digital courses that benefit over 40 schools and over 14,000 students and teachers.

Quality education is one of the most important SDGs, with a far-reaching impact on all aspects of life and future development. Thankfully, digital technology is making a difference. Working with organizations like UNESCO, we're connecting schools, building digital skills, and making cloud more accessible to help bring quality education to more and more students around the world. But we still have a long way to go, and we have to work together to make education a truly equitable resource for everyone.

Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman, Rotating Chairman, Huawei

Case Study

Safaricom supports IoT-based smart water system

Challenge

With growing pressure on the world’s limited resources, utility companies are seeking new ways to better match supply and demand, harness cleaner energy sources and reduce costs. Mobile technologies will be pivotal to achieving these objectives, underpinned by the growing role of IoT solutions.

Solution

Safaricom has partnered with the Kenya Water Institute to deploy a smart water system at the institute’s Nairobi and Kitui campuses. The smart water system will be used to facilitate practical training as well as for running a smart water management curriculum for students at the institution.

Impact

The smart water meters used as part of this deployment provide an effective way of collecting data in real time. This helps ensure effective monitoring of utility consumption data, thereby detecting loss and leakage, ensuring accurate billing, enhancing revenue collection, improving operational efficiency and, as a result, saving costs. Rolling out similar solutions across Kenya’s water network can support the country’s progress on SDG 6.

Case Study

MTN launches digital skills academy to boost youth employment

Challenge

Among Sub-Saharan Africa's population of 200 million young people, around 38 million are currently not engaged in any form of education, employment or training. This figure is on the rise, with young women being disproportionately affected, as reported by the International Labour Organization. The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development emphasises that by 2025, at least 60% of both youth and adults must possess a minimum level of proficiency in sustainable digital skills. This level of proficiency is crucial to enable them to fully access and benefit from the wide array of online services and resources available.

Solution

In 2022, MTN launched the MTN Skills Academy in collaboration with public and private sector partners to address digital challenges faced by young people. The programme integrates existing ICT programmes to better serve the communities in which MTN operates. It offers career guidance counselling, free online training in digital and financial skills, work readiness support for improved employment prospects, and access to job opportunities in the public and private sectors throughout Africa. The academy promotes inclusivity with low-data usage, zero-rating in select markets, country-specific and multilingual functionality and features catering to people with disabilities.

Impact

Over 2,000 people joined the MTN Skills Academy in the first month it launched in Zambia, with the number expected to increase during 2023. MTN aims to reach 1 million people through the initiative by 2025, which includes:

• 500,000 career guidance surveys

• 340,000 digital & financial skills courses

• 150,000 job readiness and mentorship courses

• 14,000 job placement opportunities

• 510 rural outreach hubs.