The 2014 Gartner Symposium, which is being held at CTICC in Cape Town, recently revealed the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2015. Adding to this, Vodacom’s managing executive of m-Commerce, Hemmanth Singh, has marked Africa as the fastest growing technology market.
In his presentation, Singh touched on a great deal of statistics as to why the continent is set to grow in the technology space as well as pointed out its potential. According to Singh, Africa has 6 of the world’s top 10 fastest growing countries over the last decade.
To add to this, Singh stated that Africa additionally has:
– A predicted growth rate of 5-6 percent for the next two years
– 1 billion inhabitants, which is set to double 2050 and will essentially overtake India and China
– The world’s youngest population – 50% of individuals are under the age of 24
– Foreign direct investment up 5 percent in 2012, as global FDI fell 18 percent
– Optimism – 84 percent of Africans expect to be better off by in the next 2 years
Singh also stated that by 2016 500 million Africans will live in urban centres. He also included that by 2025 Africa’s 50 largest cities will account for 40 percent of GDP (13 percent now). By 2030 Africa will account for more than 40 percent of the global population and by 2050 the total African GDP will grow from 2 Trillion USD to 29 Trillion USD.
Singh also revealed that, as the world’s fastest growing technology market:
– 720 million Africans have mobile devices
– 50 percent of Africans accessed the internet in the past 4 weeks
– 56 percent of urban consumers own internet enabled devices
– In Uganda there are more mobile phones than light bulbs
– mPesa is used by 15 million people in Kenya & moves the equivalent of 31 percent GDP annually
– More mobile money accounts exist than bank accounts in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda
– 43 percent more Google ad clicks come from Africa
Singh ended off his presentation with one short, yet impacting sentence: “The innovation platform in Africa is just massive.”
