There was a time when one could buy an air ticket, renew a TV licence, file tax returns, pay a bill or book a doctor’s appointment without downloading anything.

Today, almost every service begins with the same instruction: “Download our app”.

The assumption seems to be that everyone owns a smartphone, has access to reliable electricity, can afford data, and possesses the digital skills required to navigate increasingly complex applications.

This assumption collides rather awkwardly with Africa’s reality. According to global mobile industry body GSMA’s ‘Accelerating Smartphone Adoption in Africa’ report, published in January, only 24% of Africa’s population owned a smartphone in 2024, compared with a global average of 56%.

In other words, while many organisations now expect customers to download their app in order to transact, three out of every four Africans do not own the very device needed to do so.

Affordability remains the biggest obstacle, with GSMA’s data showing that the price of an entry-level smartphone increased from $38 in 2023 to $39 in 2024. The extra dollar may barely register in wealthier economies, but for millions of Africans – mostly women and those who reside in rural areas – it represents yet another barrier to digital participation.

Isn’t it ironic that the gateway to digital inclusion begins with a device that many simply cannot afford unless it is heavily subsidised?

However, a new initiative, announced at the Mobile World Congress Africa in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in October last year, offers grounds for cautious optimism. Led by six major telecoms operators – Airtel Africa, Axian Telecom, Ethio Telecom, MTN, Orange and Vodacom – in partnership with GSMA, it aims to develop an Internet-ready device retailing at just $30.

Speaking at the event, GSMA director-general Vivek Badrinath said the six telcos had identified what they describe as the baseline specifications for a 4G handset that “still has the functionality of a smartphone that makes it interesting and something that people are going to continue to leverage for business, for social life, for all the things that people use as part of their day-to-day life”.

According to GSMA’s estimates, a handset costing $30 could bring as many as 50-million people into the smartphone economy.

If the initiative succeeds, governments should avoid undermining it through taxation. Taxes account for 21% of the cost of a basic Internet-enabled handset across 36 sub-Saharan African countries. If smartphones are becoming the gateway to public and commercial services, taxing them as though they were discretionary consumer goods makes little sense.

Viewed in that light, the South African government deserves a pat on the back. In April 2025, it removed a 9% ad valorem excise duty on smartphones costing R2 500 or less, although they remain subject to value-added tax (VAT). As far as I am aware, this is Africa’s most significant tax reform yet aimed at improving smartphone affordability. The impact appears to have been swift, with media reports published in November, citing Communications Minister Solly Malatsi, indicating that the number of first-time buyers had increased by 16% within six months.

The Moroccans have also moved in the right direction. Since the beginning of this year, the North African country has reduced the import duty on mobile phones from 17.5% to 2.5%, substantially lowering the tax burden on smartphones and signalling that affordable digital access is increasingly being treated as a public policy priority rather than a luxury.

But not every country is following suit. Rwanda, which previously exempted mobile phones from VAT, has reintroduced 18% VAT on mobile phones and ICT equipment from the country’s 2025/26 fiscal year as part of broader tax reforms. At a time when governments are encouraging citizens to access more services digitally, making smartphones less affordable seems an odd way of advancing digital inclusion.

Organisations that instruct their customers to “download our app” should recognise that, for many people in Africa, this is not yet an option. They should also know that digital transformation should not be measured by the number of apps that organisations launch but by the number of citizens who actually use them. Otherwise, “download our app” risks becoming the digital equivalent of “let them eat cake” – well-intentioned advice that overlooks the simple fact that millions lack the means to act on it.