While Africa faces many connectivity challenges, three key stumbling blocks have the greatest impact – poor infrastructure, limited awareness and high costs.
Solving Africa’s connectivity challenges requires addressing two key areas: infrastructure and affordability. Inadequate infrastructure hampers access to reliable internet services. The high cost of connectivity and devices makes these tools and technologies unaffordable for most. Low awareness and limited digital literacy hamper the effective use of available technologies.
During a Fireside Chat at the Africa Tech Festival, which took place last week at the CTICC in Cape Town, Fred Zhou, CEO of HONOR South Africa, acknowledged the challenges and outlined what HONOR is doing to help the market overcome them. One of their big strategies is around affordability, he shared. According to Zhou, addressing the continent’s affordability challenges is not about bringing in the cheapest devices on the market. According to him, entry-level devices should not be of inferior quality; they must have good battery life and durability, and offer users a seamless experience. “If we offer the market a device that costs $40 or $50, but it breaks in two months or the battery doesn’t last very long, we may be making smartphones affordable, but we’re not delivering real value to the people who need these devices most,” he said. To address affordability challenges, we need to reduce device costs while still offering users the same features and functionality as more premium handsets. In doing so, it’s possible to open up the digital economy to a wider range of customers.
Vodacom is playing a part in this by actively addressing infrastructure and affordability stumbling blocks, said Andisa Ntsubane, managing executive of brand, marketing and communications at Vodacom Group Africa. “Our continued roll-out of base stations and network sites across our eight markets. To date, we have rolled out 11 000 sites, as well as 4G and 5G services, across these markets,” he said. These roll-outs, he explained, also entail entering into strategic partnerships with other industry players to better support rural coverage. In addition, Vodacom is working to solve affordability hurdles. “This is not only about delivering cheaper devices, it’s also about developing smart funding models to help African consumers access technologies without having to buy them outright.” He mentioned that Vodacom’s Easy2Own is a service available in South Africa that allows customers to buy a smartphone in instalments of just R6.50 per day.
Sitting down with ITWeb at the event, Mark Lei, HONOR South Africa’s CMO, emphasised that connectivity alone doesn’t guarantee inclusion; people also need the knowledge and confidence to use technology meaningfully. HONOR, he said, recognises its broader responsibility to help build digital skills, which is why it has been running the Code with HONOR initiative for over two years. Through Code with HONOR, R2 million worth of devices have been donated to communities in need across all nine provinces, and the business has also partnered with local schools and NGOs to provide hands-on training, helping new users make the most of the technology they receive.
As we look at how to address these issues, it is critical to get out of the talk box and into the do box, said Vusi Thembekwayo, Global Speaker and CEO of MyGrowthFund Venture Partners.
“I say this because we must go beyond being passive users of these technologies. We've actually got to start doing. If we don’t, the next 20 years are going to look a lot like the last 20 years,” he said. “Yes, new technologies hold incredible promise to change Africa, but taking it a step further, it must be about how Africa can change technologies for the benefit of the continent."
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