Smartphone shipments across Africa declined 15.7 percent to 19.7 million smartphones during the first quarter of 2022, a report from IDC said.
Feature phone shipments across Africa fell 26.6 percent to 21.9 million units as vendors are transitioning away from low-cost feature phones toward entry-level smartphones.

The share of smartphones priced below $100 decreased from 45.4 percent in Q4 2021 to 37.2 percent in Q1 2022.

The share of smartphone devices priced $100–$200 rose from 35.7 percent to 41.4 percent, the research report said.

The share of 5G smartphones across the Africa region rose from 4.3 percent in Q4 2021 to 5.6 percent in Q1 2022.

Arnold Ponela, senior research analyst at IDC, said: “This situation has been exacerbated by the rising costs of components and transportation, as well as by the recent lockdowns in China.”

Smartphone shipments in Egypt, which accounts for nearly 10.5 percent of the African smartphone market, fell 43.2 percent in Q1 2022 as the government moved to introduce new import regulations on all goods and a new 10 percent customs on mobile phones.

Smartphone shipments in Nigeria dropped 19.6 percent.

Smartphone shipments in South Africa and Kenya rose 3.7 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.

Transsion brands (Tecno, Itel, and Infinix) led the smartphone market in Africa with 42.7 percent unit share, its lowest since Q2 2020. Transsion brands had smartphone market share of 48 percent in Africa in Q4 2021 and Q3 2021.

Samsung has 26.8 percent share in the smartphone market in Africa. Samsung had smartphone market share of 20 percent in Q4 2021 and 21 percent in Q3 2021 in Africa.

Xiaomi has 6.6 percent share in the smartphone market in Africa.

OPPO has 5.4 percent share in the smartphone market in Africa.

HMD has 3.7 percent share in the smartphone market in Africa.

Transsion brands (Tecno and Itel) also dominated the feature phone landscape with a combined share of 67.6 percent. Nokia placed third with 12.6 percent share in the feature phone market in Africa.