London — 19 August 2022 - Despite a significant long-term GSMA initiative, Sub-Saharan Africa's mobile operators have over five years failed to close the gender gap on mobile internet use and women are still less likely to be aware of mobile internet than men. Russell Southwood talks to Claire Sibthorpe, Head of Digital Inclusion in the Mobile for Development (M4D) team at GSMA about why progress has stalled.
The starting point for looking at the gender divide is the gap in handset ownership. This gender gap - the difference between the percentage ownership by men and women - is as follows in the sampled countries for the report years of 2020 and 2022:
2020 2022
Kenya 5% 6%
Nigeria 7% 5%
Senegal 4% 7%
These might seem quite modest gender gaps but in the 2020 report, in less well developed markets, the gaps were much wider: 17% in both Mozambique and Uganda. Overall, the gap is 13% for Sub-Saharan Africa and this has not changed since 2017.
According to Claire Sibthorpe: "There has been a slowdown in the rate of mobile phone adoption by women but not men: this is particularly true of smartphones in Kenya. Based on the qualitative work we did there, lower income women don't have the money to afford the data needed for a smartphone."
"We ask if you acquired a new device in the last year, did the respondent pay for it themselves or choose the model? The percentage of women choosing their own device was less even when spending their own money."
The definition for mobile internet use adopted for the research - "A person who has used the internet on a mobile phone at least once in the last three months" - sets a fairly low bar. But even setting the bar this low, there has been practically no movement in mobile internet use gender gap. Since 2017 to date, the gap has hovered between a statistically insignificant 36-37%.
Therefore the gender gaps on mobile internet use in the countries quoted in this year's report remain wide:
Kenya 38%
Nigeria 36%
Senegal 16%
Of course, there are key hurdles that it's hard for operators to address. In all but the wealthier countries like South Africa, there is a literacy gap between men and women. Also the gap in digital skills - although not explored in detail by this research - play a role: "Both literacy and digital skills play a big part in this gap. The underlying causes of the gender gap are structural, income-related and things like social and cultural norms. Until this year, globally, women's mobile internet adoption was increasing. Then Covid came long. Might we see a reversal of this trend? The gender gap in Africa hasn't changed. Global changes have been driven by South Asia."
So pragmatically, what can mobile operators do to get more women customers?: "Operators need to be thinking about what's already in the market and use their messaging to highlight use cases for women." Based on the research there are a cluster of use cases that will reflect how women see these use cases: having a phone makes them feel safer; it gives them access to information they would not otherwise have; and finally this information will be for use in work or business, studies or education.
There's nothing 'politically correct' in having a clear focus on women customers. If you don't meet the needs of your African women customers, you will not be part of the future. To see the full report: https://www.gsma.com/r/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Mobile-Gender-Gap-Report-2022.pdf
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In brief
Kenya: Medi-science International Limited and Kenya-based startup Afya Rekod (AfyaRekod.com) have announced a strategic collaboration that seeks to transform healthcare delivery through improved access to personal health data in Africa and Europe. The partnership will give patients an accessible record of their own health history, by enabling patients, doctors and hospitals to host health records securely on one platform through a digital application. Afya Rekod, a patient-driven platform, puts patients at the core of all healthcare services. They can capture, store, access and own their health records, which has multiple benefits including reducing the cost of repeating medical tests. Both patients and clinicians will be able to access imaging files and test results through an app on their phones or browser without having to go back to the health clinic to collect the files. To protect confidentiality, Afya Rekod uses various AI and blockchain modules, and the patient maintains the sovereign right of ownership to their health data.
South Africa: Fifteen major South African financial institutions have successfully migrated all their sensitive business data and hosted systems to Teraco, Africa's leader in data centre infrastructure. The migration was coordinated in a single move described as a major technical feat and a step forward for the SA financial ecosystem. The move involved ten of South Africa's small- to medium-sized banks and five other major financial institutions. Six of these institutions are within the top 15 banking institutions in the country. All 15 institutions are customers of Direct Transact, South Africa's largest outsourced banking and payments service provider.
Malawi: In an ominous sign, Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) has announced that it will implement a 20% tariff increase on the current average effective rate for both voice and data services effective 18 August. The mobile operator said the move was necessitated by the rising costs of doing business due to a recent 25% devaluation of the Malawi kwacha (MWK) and inflationary pressures.
South Africa: MTN South Africa has announced that its 'Supersonic' Airfibre now covers over 3.4 Million households in the country. Airfibre uses the Gigabit 1 (G1) radio system to get customers connected, developed by US startup Tarana Wireless.
Mozambique: Vodacom Mozambique says it has become the first of the country's cellcos to launch VoLTE technology. VoLTE calling is currently only available to customers with iPhone devices, specifically iPhone 7 or newer, but the operator says it is working to support additional handset models.
After successfully landing its Equiano undersea cable in Namibia last month, Google has announced that the cable has now landed in South Africa. The cable which seeks to connect Europe to Africa via the ocean landed in Melkbosstrand, Western Cape.
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Ghana: Despite discussions to sell this operation, Vodafone Ghana has revealed it plans to deploy 300 additional 4G LTE and 3G sites in several communities across the country by the end of October, increasing its current network capacity by 30%.
Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies, has announced the finalisation of its 100% acquisition and delisting of Telrad, an Israeli-based technology company (TASE: ILA). Telrad has a significant presence in 13 countries across the Middle East, South America, United Sates, Eastern Europe, Asia and provides high-quality technology products and services for global businesses and governments. The company offers innovative technology solutions, including networking, cloud infrastructure, information technology, geoinformatics and cybersecurity.
Kenya: Kenyan startups raised nearly one billion dollars in the first half of 2022, surpassing what the country secured last year. Data shows that, of the big four in Africa -- the quartet that includes Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, and which receives most VC funding in the continent -- Kenya has so far showed the greatest growth in funding gained this year. This is after the East African country, through 76 deals, raised $820 million in the first half of this year, according to the Big Deal database, almost double the funding secured by the country's startups last year. For Kenya, this represents a 422% growth in funding raised, when compared to a similar period last year -- when the country's startups raised $157 million. The Big Deal's 2021 report, placed the funding secured by Kenya for the whole of last year at $411 million while Partech's data says the country raised $571 million. On both accounts, Kenya held the fourth position in Africa in terms of funding received.
