Smartphone shipments in Africa declined 19.8 percent to 17.8 million units during the third quarter of 2022, according to IDC report.
Africa’s overall mobile phone market fell 19.9 percent in Q3 2022 to 42.2 million units. The feature phone market dipped 20.1 percent to 24.4 million units.

All of Africa’s smartphone markets experienced declines in Q3 2022.

“The declines seen across the continent were caused by an overall slow economy, high inflation rates, higher dollar exchange rates, and the increasing cost of living,” says Taher Abdel-Hameed, senior research analyst at IDC.

Smartphone market declined 16.2 percent in South Africa.

Smartphone market fell 21.1 percent in Nigeria.

Egypt’s smartphone market declined 73.4 percent due to the introduction of government regulations around imports. These restrictions which include requirements for all import payments to be conducted via letters of credit (LCs) and for all LCs to be approved by the central bank, with limited approvals granted so far have caused a huge dip in the market.

Transsion brands (Tecno, Infinix, and Itel) continued to lead Africa’s smartphone market in Q3 2022, with a combined unit share of 47.4 percent, followed by Samsung and Xiaomi with respective shares of 25.9 percent and 6.4 percent.

Transsion brands also dominated the feature phone market, with a combined unit share of 79.1 percent, followed by Nokia (6.1 percent).

IDC expects the African smartphone market to grow 8.8 percent in unit terms in 2023 — will be driven by recovery in the Egyptian market and affordable models to offset declining consumer disposable income in most countries, Ramazan Yavuz, a senior research manager at IDC, said.