Lagos — The growth rate of the Nigeria mobile telecommunication sector received further international acknowledgement Wednesday when a report published in the UK stated mobile growth in Nigeria is doubling annually.

The study backed by the UK mobile phone giant, Vodafone, said Mobile phone use in Africa is growing faster than anywhere else in the world.

According to the report, African countries with greater mobile use had seen a higher rate of economic growth.

It also said that many businesses in Africa rely on mobile phones for their transactions. The report, supported by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, studied the social and economic impact of mobiles.

It said small businesses in South Africa rely on mobiles, while "Nigeria's market is doubling annually."

Although the proportion of people using mobile phones in much of Africa remains low in international terms, averaging about six percent in 2004, the findings were nonetheless described as positive.

According to the report, ìMobile and land line networks - in addition to the openness of an economy, GDP growth and infrastructure - are positively linked with foreign inward investment."

Other findings of the report includes that more than 85 percent of small businesses run by black people, surveyed in South Africa, rely solely on mobile phones for telecommunications; 62 percent of businesses in South Africa, and 59 percent in Egypt, said mobile use was linked to an increase in profits - despite higher call costs; 97 percent of people surveyed in Tanzania said they could access a mobile phone, while just 28 percent could access a land line phone; a developing country which has an average of 10 more mobile phones per 100 population between 1996 and 2003 had 0.59 percent higher GDP growth than an otherwise identical country.

The reports stated that income, gender, age, education - and even the absence of regular electricity supplies - do not create barriers to mobile access in rural areas, as handsets are often shared by smaller communities.

The chief executive of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Stephen Yeo, which hosted the launch of the report was reported as saying that mobile phones had enabled developing countries to "leapfrog" old technologies.

"The result is explosive growth - 5,000 percent in Africa between 1998 and 2003," he said adding, "this research... provides the first empirical evidence of a link between social and economic development and the establishment of mobile phone networks."

According to the report, there are currently more than 82 million mobile phone users in Africa.