The GSMA and the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa (PDAA) have launched a new roadmap setting out priority actions for governments, industry, development partners and investors to move beyond expanding network coverage and enable more people to use the Internet regularly, safely and productively.

The ‘Advancing digital connectivity in Africa: Charting Africa’s path to one-billion connected people by 2030’, supporting the ambition of connecting one-billion people to the Internet by 2030, builds on GSMA’s ‘State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2026’, which found that 3.1-billion people globally live within mobile broadband coverage but do not use mobile Internet.

In Africa alone, the use gap is around 906-million people – almost 60% of the continent’s population - while 122-million people, or 8% of the population, still live beyond the reach of a mobile broadband network.

Developed by GSMA Intelligence for PDAA, the roadmap identifies three priorities for accelerating meaningful digital participation, including accelerating migration from 2G and 3G smartphone-based participation, converting more than 600-million legacy mobile connections into meaningful Internet use on 4G and 5G networks.

The roadmap further identifies integrating energy and connectivity investment, recognising reliable electricity as essential to network economics, device use and participation in the digital economy.

Another priority is reducing the cost of reaching rural and underserved communities through shared infrastructure, innovative technologies, outcome-based public funding and anchor demand from schools, healthcare facilities and other public institutions.

The roadmap finds that progress across these priorities must be reinforced by access to affordable, quality smartphones; practical digital skills; safe and trusted services; locally relevant content; digital public infrastructure; and policies that promote investment and inclusion.

It also recognises that there is no single pathway to closing Africa’s connectivity gap.

While some markets must continue expanding rural coverage and reliable electricity access, others need to prioritise smartphone affordability, digital skills, online safety or access to relevant services that give people a compelling reason to connect.

The roadmap draws on analysis of 11 diverse African markets: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

Halving the mobile Internet use gap across the 11 markets assessed could bring about 245-million additional people online.

“The goal is ambitious, but it is achievable. If we bring together connectivity, electrification, affordable devices and digital skills – and if we match Africa’s many promising programmes with the power of genuine public-private partnership – we can ensure that the continent’s digital transformation leaves no community behind,” said PDAA co-chairperson, former Liberia President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

GSMA chief regulatory officer and GSMA Foundation president John Giusti added that Africa has already built much of the network foundation for its digital future, with the urgent task now to close the use gap by making smartphones and services affordable, equipping people with practical skills, building trust and ensuring connectivity delivers visible value in people’s daily lives.

“This roadmap shows how governments, industry and development partners can align investment and accountability around the outcomes that matter. Reaching one-billion meaningfully connected Africans will require coordinated action across infrastructure, energy, devices, skills and digital services.”

Africa cannot build its digital future on connectivity alone, continued PDAA Africa CEO Ibrahima Guimba-Saïdou.

“A network can reach a community, but meaningful participation depends on the conditions around it: reliable energy, affordable devices, digital skills and services people have a reason to use. This roadmap gives us a practical framework for bringing those conditions together and turning access into opportunity at scale.”

The roadmap calls for stakeholders to replace standalone interventions with a coordinated delivery model that connects policy, infrastructure, energy, devices, skills, safety and relevant digital services.

PDAA will serve as a platform to bring together public- and private-sector stakeholders, align investment pipelines, reduce duplication, share risk and help proven solutions scale across markets.

It also urges governments, industry and development partners to measure progress through meaningful digital participation and socioeconomic outcomes – including active Internet use, access to public services, learning, healthcare, financial inclusion and productivity – rather than infrastructure deployment alone.

The roadmap was formally presented at an event at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York on September 21, bringing together stakeholders to discuss the collective action needed to accelerate meaningful digital participation across Africa.