Since the Covid-19 pandemic, African countries have intensified efforts to expand connectivity, with 5G adoption gaining unprecedented momentum. Once seen as irrelevant for the continent, 5G is rapidly being deployed across Africa. According to the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), by 2024, 79 telecom operators across 41 countries committed to 5G investments, with 35 having launched commercial networks in 21 countries. Early launches date back to 2018, with Vodacom Lesotho pioneering the continent’s first 5G service.
By 2024, 5G is expected to cover 25% of urban mobile networks in Africa, compared to 73% coverage by 4G. Subscriber numbers reached over 26 million, with around 600 million unique mobile subscribers across sub-Saharan Africa. Including North African countries like Tunisia and Egypt, 46 operators have launched 5G in 27 countries as of mid-2025, with more commercial rollouts anticipated, especially in Algeria, DRC, Morocco, Ivory Coast, and Cape Verde.
Despite this progress, five key barriers slow mass 5G adoption: device affordability, service availability, infrastructure, spectrum access, and policy frameworks. The ATU highlights the high cost of 5G-capable phones as a major hurdle, with many Africans unable to afford even the cheapest models priced around $150. The limited development of practical 5G use cases in personal and industrial sectors—such as AI, IoT-enabled smart cities, health monitoring, and automated production—contributes to perceptions of 5G as a luxury technology reserved for businesses and the wealthy.
Infrastructure challenges include high deployment costs, limited optical fiber availability, spectrum scarcity, lack of cross-industry collaboration incentives, and absence of standards for cross-border data management. The ITU Africa office stresses that addressing these issues is crucial to unlocking 5G’s growth potential for African economies.
Looking ahead, the GSMA estimates that by 2030, 5G will contribute $10 billion to Africa’s regional economy, accounting for 6% of the mobile sector’s total economic impact.
