Six hundred million Africans live within reach of a mobile broadband signal right now and still are not online. That single fact reframes everything about how the continent talks about digital access, because the problem was never really about towers.
A joint report by the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa and GSMA Intelligence puts the numbers in sharp focus. In 2025, about 550 million Africans, or 36% of the population, used the internet, up from 16% a decade ago. That still sits well below the global average of 74%. And while 122 million people remain in areas with no last-mile connectivity at all, a far larger group, roughly 906 million people, already have a signal nearby but choose not to, or simply cannot, get online.
Ghana makes the point vividly. The country has 99% 4G coverage, yet a 57% usage gap remains. Among Ghanaians surveyed, 86% of men and 82% of women use social media weekly. Online banking or mobile money? Only 25% of men and 21% of women. Government services reach just 24% of men and 18% of women. The internet is present. The meaningful use of it is not.
The barriers the report identifies across 11 Sub-Saharan African focus markets are device affordability, limited digital skills, and a fundamental question of perceived value. Egypt and Niger round out three very different versions of the same story, each shaped by income, language, infrastructure quality, and trust in digital services.
Africa's goal of connecting one billion people by 2030 is still on the table, but the countries making the most progress are the ones asking a harder question: not whether people can get a signal, but whether getting online actually changes their lives.
Originally published by TechCabal.