The number of smartphones shipped to Africa increased 7.6% from 18.1 million in Q2 2022 to 19.6 million in Q2 2023, according to the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker recently issued by the International Data Corporation (IDC).

South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt were the top African destinations over the period with Chinese Transsion's brands (Tecno, Itel, and Infinix) remaining the most popular. Next are South Korean Samsung and the Chinese Xiaomi.

The increase in smartphone sales in Africa during the second quarter of 2023 marks the end of seven consecutive quarters of decline due, in particular, to the pandemic period, which came with rising inflation, economic instability, depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar, and weak consumer demand.

Ramazan Yavuz, Senior Research Director at IDC, believes that the African smartphone market should continue to grow in 2024, even if the volumes will not reach the level seen in 2021 in the short term. "The difficulties and challenges posed by the global economic outlook continue to affect the region, preventing a faster recovery. In the long term, the influx of affordable mobile phone models from all brands and the acceleration of the transition from feature phones to smartphones will drive market growth," he explained.