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Insights Centre
Sectors

Digital economy

Where the networks run, who is connected and how fast, who is building data centres, and where the tech markets are strongest.

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SADC exports of the pillar's goodsUS$532m2024
Deals in the last 12 months60US$1.1bn where the value is confirmed · 91 tracked in all
Subsectors112 with trade data

What this page answers

  • Where do fibre and cables run, and where are the data centres and exchange points?
  • Who lives outside 4G coverage, and how fast is the internet in each city?
  • Who is building towers and data centres?
  • Where are the strongest tech markets?

South Africa leads SADC on people online

People using the internet, people, latest year for each country. Click a bar for that country's digital economy page.

010m20m30m40m50mSouth Africa50.2mDRC21.5mTanzania21.4mAngola15.4mMozambique7.1mZimbabwe6.9mMadagascar6.0mMalawi4.1mZambia3.6mNamibia2.0mBotswana1.4mLesotho1.2mMauritius913kEswatini788kComoros282kSeychelles107kmedian 3.9m

Source: dotzedw·dotzedw Insights Centre

Subsectors

11 in this pillar

Mobile networks

Tracks
Operators, subscriptions and share, data traffic, base stations by technology, revenue and investment, spectrum.
Signals ahead
Spectrum auctions, licence conditions, tower deals.

Select a figure for its trend. Source: CEPII BACI, dotzedw deals tracker.

Trade in detail

SADC sold US$344m of mobile networks abroad in 2024, up 27.6% on five years earlier

Exports and imports of the products in this subsector by the 16 SADC countries, US$ (HS 8517)

0$1bn$2bn$3bn$4bn$5bn2012201420162018202020222024ExportsUS$344mImportsUS$4.7bn
Source: CEPII BACI·dotzedw Insights Centre

Largest exporters, 2024

South AfricaUS$309m
MauritiusUS$9.3m
TanzaniaUS$6.3m
EswatiniUS$4.8m
NamibiaUS$3.7m
AngolaUS$2.3m
MadagascarUS$2.2m
ZambiaUS$1.9m

Where the exports go

SADCUS$166m
European UnionUS$69m
Rest of the worldUS$29m
ChinaUS$24m
United Arab EmiratesUS$20m
Rest of AfricaUS$18m
United StatesUS$12m
United KingdomUS$3.3m

Main products, 2024

Phones and network equipment (851762)US$149m
Phones and network equipment (851712)US$127m
Phones and network equipment (851770)US$39m
Phones and network equipment (851769)US$19m
Phones and network equipment (851718)US$4.8m
Phones and network equipment (851761)US$4.5m

Each country's trade in mobile networks every year since 2012, by partner is part of the Individual plan

US$19 a month or US$190 a year. Subscribe on dotzedw.com and you come straight back to this page with Individual access. Already a member? Sign in with your dotzedw.com account.

Open these deals in the deals tracker

What SADC sells abroad across digital economy

SADC exports by subsector, 2024, US$. A product can count in two subsectors.

Mobile networksUS$344m+28% on five years earlier
Data centres and cloudUS$188m-3% on five years earlier
Source: CEPII BACI·dotzedw Insights Centre

Who is moving

Open in the deals tracker

60 deals in the last 12 months across SADC, placed in subsectors by what they say.

Where the fintech opportunity is strongest in SADC

Each sector is sized in three layers: the addressable market, the part today's rails can serve, and the share a new entrant can win now. Every driver is either a sourced indicator or listed openly as a gap, so you can see what the ranking rests on and what it cannot yet see.

Fintech: Payments, digital banking, credit, savings and remittances. On the drivers we can measure, South Africa leads SADC with 79 out of 100, ahead of Namibia (70) and Botswana (69).

Fintech ranking

Scores run from 0 to 100 by rank within SADC; 100 is the strongest signal. Sort by any layer.

#Country
1South Africa79905293
2Namibia70586290
3Botswana69686573

The full fintech ranking for SADC is part of the Individual plan

US$19 a month or US$190 a year. Subscribe on dotzedw.com and you come straight back to this page with Individual access. Already a member? Sign in with your dotzedw.com account.

A signal of relative opportunity, not a market size estimate. 10 measured drivers, 5 gaps not yet scored. Latest values are used, whatever their year.

What drives each layer

Open any measured driver for its definition, source and the full regional picture.

Addressable market

How big the pool of potential customers is.

  • · SADC median 19.4m
  • · SADC median $2,539
  • · SADC median 41.2%
  • (proxy for mobile broadband) · SADC median 101

Serviceable market

How much of it today's rails can reach.

  • · SADC median 59.8%
  • · SADC median 46.6%
  • (cross-border flows to serve) · SADC median 1.4%
  • · SADC median 42.6%
Not yet measured
  • Value of electronic payments · source: Central bank national payment system reports (manual entry)
  • ICT sector share of GDP · source: National statistics offices (manual entry)

Obtainable share

How easy it is to win customers now.

  • (proxy for card and cash infrastructure) · SADC median 10.7
  • · SADC median 18.8%
Not yet measured
  • Point-of-sale terminals and transactions by channel · source: Central bank payment statistics
  • Cost of mobile data · source: ITU ICT Price Baskets or A4AI mobile broadband pricing
  • Venture capital raised · source: Paid deal feed (for example Briter Bridges or AVCA)

Where the opportunities sit

Payments and transfersDigital banking and neobanksLending and credit scoringSavings and micro-investmentsCross-border remittancesBuy now pay laterPoint-of-sale and merchant tools

Track live fintech activity in Deals and Projects. Each gap above closes as analysts add data through the admin or a paid source is switched on.

Sources and method