The Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded more mobile subscribers in 2023 with over half of the country’s large population now connected, reported Ecofin Agency.
The Congolese Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority recorded 6.4 million more mobile subscribers in the whole of last year taking total number of connected from 49.8 million to 56.2 million, a rise of 12.8%.
This equated to around 59.1% of the DRC’s massive 95.2 million population, however the actual figure could be lower due to multiple SIM card usage, the regulator acknowledged.
The government pushed initiatives to encourage the private sector to connect more citizens to mobile. An example being the partnership between the Congolese Fiber Optic Company and the Agency for Coordination and Monitoring of Collaboration Agreements, to install fibre optic cables along roads.
By onboarding more citizens to mobile, the government aims to have more will tap into information from the internet and financial services, which has proven to be assets for the economies of African countries. But mobile money penetration only stood at 23.3%, and mobile internet penetration was 31.5%.