Sub-Saharan Africa’s mobile ecosystem generated almost $150-billion in economic value in 2018 – equivalent to 8.6% of the region’s overall gross domestic product (GDP).

By 2023, this is forecast to increase to $185-billion, or 9.1% of GDP, as countries increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased take-up of mobile services.

“The mobile ecosystem supported almost 3.5-million jobs – directly and indirectly – and made a significant contribution to the funding of the public sector, with almost $15.6-billion raised through taxation,” the latest new GSMA study says.

The new report, ‘The Mobile Economy: Sub-Saharan Africa 2019’, shows that the informal economy accounts for a large part of the mobile ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nearly 1.2-million of the 1.7-million direct jobs within the mobile ecosystem are in the informal sector and involve the distribution and retail of mobile services.

The report also reveals that sub-Saharan Africa will remain the world’s fastest-growing mobile region over the next few years, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.6%, as millions of young African consumers become mobile users for the first time.

“A new generation of youthful digital natives across sub-Saharan Africa are set to fuel customer growth and drive the adoption of new mobile services that are empowering lives and transforming businesses,” says GSMA sub-Saharan Africa head Akinwale Goodluck.

An additional 167-million subscribers over the period to 2025 are expected to take the total subscriber base to just over 600-million, representing about half the population.

By the end of 2018, there were 456-million unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa – an increase of 20-million over the previous year and representing a subscriber penetration rate of 44%, the report shows.

Subscriber additions will be concentrated in high-growth markets, such as Nigeria and Ethiopia, with growth rates reaching 19% and 11% respectively.

“With mobile technology at the heart of sub-Saharan Africa’s digital journey, it is essential for policymakers in the region to implement policies and best practices that ensure sustainable growth in the mobile industry, and enable the transition to next-generation mobile networks,” Goodluck highlights.

Smartphones accounted for 39% of mobile connections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2018, forecast to increase to two-thirds of connections by 2025.

Further, during 2019, third-generation technology will overtake second-generation technology to become the leading mobile technology in sub-Saharan Africa, with just over 45% of total connections by the end of the year.

While fourth-generation (4G) technology will account for almost one in four connections by 2025, uptake is dampened in some markets by the high cost of devices and delays in assigning spectrum.

By the end of 2018, 4G accounted for 7% of total connections, compared with the global average of 44%.