Mobile smartphone subscription fastest in Africa, to reach 850m by 2023

Mobile smartphone subscription is rising faster in Africa than any other region in the world, according to data gleaned from Ecobank research in a tweet at the weekend.

The tweet specifically projected that at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent, about 850 million smartphones would be found on the continent by 2023, just six years from now.

The growth in smartphone subscription on the continent has been sporadic despite high prices and low income. In the world generally, growth is momentous given that telephone took 76 years to reach 50 percent of all US households and the smartphone less than six years to reach same target.