By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson says, mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa will exceed 635 million by the end of this year from the Africa’s increasing connectivity rate.

*Communications Technology Minister, Omobola Johnson

Johnson made the prediction at the third African Internet Governance Forum, held in Abuja.

She said the prediction is also expected to rise to around 930 million by the end of 2019, given the trend at which the sector is witnessing unprecedented growth in recent times.
According to the Minister, predictions are that mobile internet use in Africa will increase twenty fold in the next five years, meaning double the estimated growth rate in the rest of the world.
Lower priced devices in particular smartphones and tablets, increase investment in network infrastructure, and increase availability of spectrum for mobile broadband, are among the factors she said that will drive this growth.
Such growth, the Minister said means that Africa is rapidly closing in on the global mobile penetration rate, which was around 92 percent at the end of 2013, compared to around 70 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Internet Governance Forums was an avenue for stakeholders in the industry from around Africa to independently and voluntarily discuss on issues that bothers on the development of the internet.
It also presented opportunities for stakeholders to continue the process of developing realistic and realisable solutions to these issues.
The Minister, who attributed the sharp increase in mobile usage in Africa to the additional ways in which mobile phones are used, said the increase in the number of mobile subscribers had fuelled increases in mobile internet use in Africa, making pundits to believe that Africa is at the verge of a mobile internet revolution.

“Beyond conducting voice conversations, she said mobile phones are often the preferred channel for receiving data and for conducting transactions – our phones are our cameras, wallets, shops, music (playback) systems, movie screens, information or service centres etc,” she said.

Africa has also seen improvements in the deployment of other technologies.  For example the number of undersea fibre-optic cables landing in Africa has increased from about 2 active cables in 2001 to around 16 by the end of this year.
On Satellite usage, she said the coverage is also improving with international, predominantly private-sector companies deploying more capacity over Africa, citing the launch of second batch of four satellites by O3b last week as proof of the satellite coverage with addition of RASCOM-QAF1R and NigComSat-1R from the African region.
Similarly, the President of NIRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma, while speaking on the importance of domain name to Africa said,  Nigeria and Africa in general are lagging behind in tapping the huge benefits domain name offers.