Roughly 906 million people across Africa live within mobile broadband coverage but remain completely offline, creating a massive digital usage gap that threatens continental public service initiatives. Released on September 21 in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, a new roadmap from the GSMA and the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa (PDAA) aims to address this divide and chart a course toward one billion connected people by 2030.
The Scale of Africa’s Mobile Internet Usage Gap
The framework, titled Advancing Digital Connectivity in Africa: Charting Africa’s Path to One Billion Connected People by 2030, builds directly upon the GSMA’s State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report. The data reveals that while infrastructure rollout has advanced rapidly, about 60 percent of Africa’s total population fell into the usage gap in 2025. By contrast, only 8 percent—or roughly 122 million people—still live entirely beyond the reach of a mobile broadband network, highlighting adoption barriers that extend far beyond raw tower deployment.
The analysis covers 11 diverse markets: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. GSMA Intelligence data shows stark disparities among these nations. In Nigeria, approximately 140 million people sat within the usage gap in 2025. Rwanda and Malawi exhibit even sharper contrasts between coverage and actual subscriber rates; Rwanda reported 96 percent 4G coverage paired with just 21 percent unique mobile internet penetration, while Malawi recorded 87 percent 4G coverage alongside a unique penetration rate of 12.5 percent and 33 percent smartphone adoption.
Three Priority Actions for Governments and Industry
Because barriers vary drastically by country—ranging from device costs to digital literacy—the roadmap prescribes three core actions for governments, industry players, and investors:
- Accelerating 4G and 5G Migration: Stakeholders must shift users away from legacy 2G and 3G networks, converting more than 600 million legacy mobile connections into active internet use on modern 4G and 5G infrastructure.
- Integrating Energy and Connectivity: Recognizing that the World Bank counts nearly 600 million Africans still living without electricity, the framework treats reliable power as an essential prerequisite for network economics and device charging.
- Reducing Rural Deployment Costs: Communities in underserved areas require shared infrastructure, innovative technologies, outcome-based public funding, and anchor demand from public institutions like schools and healthcare clinics.
Halving the mobile internet usage gap across the 11 assessed markets could bring roughly 245 million additional people online. Former Liberian President and PDAA co-chair Ellen Johnson Sirleaf emphasized that reaching this goal depends on unifying connectivity, electrification, affordable devices, and skills through strong public-private partnerships. Meanwhile, GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer John Giusti noted that the continent must now focus on making smartphones affordable, building practical digital skills, and ensuring that digital services deliver measurable value to everyday users as governments increasingly move identity and payment systems online.