Be honest, could you function without your smartphone? If that’s an uncomfortable thought, you’re not alone: six in 10 people told a US survey they ‘couldn’t cope’ without their device even for one day. Some even say they can’t find their way to work without following directions on their phone, and one in three admit to having never used a printed map in their life.

Mobile phones have become indispensable. Their original voice function – making and receiving actual phone calls – is now far less important than the mobile connectivity that opens up access to the latest news and entertainment, financial services, e-commerce, health, education and income opportunities from nearly anywhere globally. For women especially, the phone is an emergency backup, essential for getting home safely and calling for help in risky situations.

Now imagine not having access to all these things. That’s the reality for many people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially for those living in rural areas and who happen to be female. Women are still 14% less likely than men to use mobile internet. As many as 885 million girls and women remain offline, most of them (60%) in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to the GSMA. This acronym stands for the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, and it represents the world’s mobile operators and organisations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries.

‘It’s disheartening that progress in reducing the mobile internet gender gap has stalled,’ says Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at the GSMA. ‘The data highlights the urgent need for increased focus and investment by all stakeholders working together to close the digital gender divide. The mobile internet gender gap is not going to close on its own. It’s driven by deep-rooted social, economic and cultural factors that disproportionately impact women.’

The GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025 highlights that mobile is the primary way most people in LMICs access the internet, particularly women. While more women than ever before in these countries (63%) are using mobile internet, the report says that persistent and substantial gender gaps in adoption and use remain. In sub-Saharan Africa, the GSMA puts the digital gender gap at 29%.

However, SA is an outlier in the sub-Saharan region and ahead of the curve in addressing the digital gender divide. The country is not officially classified as an LMIC, because its per capita gross national income falls into the upper-middle income category. But at the same time, SA’s high social inequality means that many communities live with economic hardships that are more typical of low- and middle-income settings. Therefore, girls and women in these marginalised communities, especially in rural areas, do still struggle with meaningful mobile access.

‘In modern-day South Africa, access to the internet is no longer regarded as a luxury. It’s a necessity for economic and human develop-ment,’ Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Mondli Gungubele said last year. He emphasised government’s efforts to deliver this necessity to offline communities by expanding free public WiFi hotspots and reducing data costs, among others.

‘Women and girls who lack access to digital tools and skills are at a significant disadvantage in today’s connected world, limiting their ability to access information, education, economic opportunities and essential services,’ according to MTN. ‘Closing the digital gender gap is critical to achieving inclusive economic growth, reducing inequalities and empowering women to fully participate in the opportunities of the digital age.’

Research shows that owning a mobile phone and knowing how to use it to access the internet can help boost women’s financial independence, secure their livelihoods and even empower them to make better decisions for their own health and that of their families. The broader economic benefits of closing the digital gender gap are massive too. If women were brought up to the same level of phone ownership and mobile use as men in LMIC by 2030, it could add $1.3 trillion to the world’s GDP, according to the GSMA.

Mobile phone companies have a role to play in this. MTN says its purpose as a digital solutions provider with a large footprint in Africa is to enable the benefits of a modern connected life for everyone. ‘We recognise that meaningful connectivity must be inclusive,’ says the company. ‘That’s why we are committed to ensuring that women and men benefit equally from information and communication technologies across our 16 markets.’

The group explains that it actively supports the advancement of gender equality (UN Sustainable Development Goal 5) through ‘targeted interventions that address the unique barriers women face in accessing and using digital and financial services’. These include initiatives to expand mobile broadband coverage, drive down the cost of smartphones and data and deliver digital education and financial literacy programmes.

Of these, affordability of handsets and data was found to be the biggest barrier to digital access for women in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the GSMA report. In SA, there was talk of exempting entry-level smartphones from VAT to make them more affordable, when MTN made headlines with a rock-bottom offer. In May, the company announced it would provide smartphones at a dramatically reduced price of R99. More than 1.2 million of its SA pre-paid customers stand to benefit from the network-locked handsets, which come preloaded with apps to help customers access a range of digital tools and services. ‘As the country transitions to technologies like 4G and 5G, it is vital that we take proactive steps to connect as many South Africans as possible,’ said MTN SA’s chief executive, Charles Molapisi.

Perhaps surprisingly, a study by Research ICT Africa (RIA) found that gender inequality in smartphone ownership has been eliminated – and even reversed – in SA. In 2018, 44% of women and 50% of men reportedly owned a smartphone. By 2022, women had surpassed men with 72% vs 70% smartphone ownership. Inequalities in ownership are now primarily owing to location and income. In other words, South Africans with a higher income and those living in urban areas are more likely to own a smartphone than low-income earners and those living in rural areas.

Furthermore, RIA’s 2022 After Access survey found that SA’s mobile phone ownership has reached 92% (smartphones account for 71% of this), far ahead of computer ownership at only 16%.

However, smartphone ownership has not translated into impactful digital access in SA. Alison Gillwald, RIA executive director and adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, told the 2024 Public Economics Conference that mobile connectivity in SA was predominantly used for social networking (98%), followed by entertainment (59%) and online banking (55%), while potential areas that offer economic benefits (such as online work and education) lag in usage. She pointed out gender disparities, with men significantly more likely than women to use the internet for online work and accessing professional and government services.

According to the survey, the adoption of digital technology by microenterprises also remains low. Only 38% use the internet and 39% remain financially included, despite 65% owning a smartphone. And here the gender gap is visible again, as female-owned (as well as informal and rural) microenterprises were the least likely to use the internet.

Although SA massively outperforms the other sub-Saharan countries in the After Access survey, Gillwald says its relatively high internet penetration rate of 75% masks high levels of intersectional digital inequality. In order to tackle this digital inequality and data injustice, she calls for nationally representative demand-side data on ICT access and use. In a paper for UN Women on the Gendered Nature of Digital Inequality, Gillwald and her RIA co-authors propose a worldwide 1% contribution from the internet domain name system (DNS) registration fees towards a digital solidarity fund – to be used for disaggregating, analysing and evaluating digital data.

Crucially, driving digital inclusivity goes beyond mobile phone ownership and internet access, and also requires basic digital know-how and being comfortable enough to use technology. ‘Digital literacy and access to connectivity and technology begets confidence and is very important in ensuring that the digital gender gap is closed in the country,’ says Taki Netshitenzhe, director of external affairs at Vodacom SA. ‘This is why initiatives such as our Virtual Classroom solution, launched in 2022, are important in ensuring that learners have access to technological tools, enabling access to online educational content, regardless of their socio-economic status or geographic location.’

Virtual classrooms form part of Vodacom’s larger Connected Education platform, which together with the group’s other ICT training initiatives have been vital in increasing digital literacy in SA. ‘We pioneered the launch of Vodacom e-Learning in partnership with the Department of Basic Education in 2014,’ says Netshitenzhe. Ever since, the free online portal has been providing educational content, fully aligned to the national school curriculum, in numerous SA languages for grades R to 12. Vodacom also offers initiatives that specially address digital access for girls and women. One of these is Code Like a Girl, which was launched in 2017 and has trained nearly 23 000 participants with coding skills, enabling them to pursue careers in technology, engineering, science and mathematics.

There’s also a graduate programme targeting females in technology, says Netshitenzhe. ‘And last year, we hosted the first women’s developer workshop and initiative that was part of the broader Vodacom Developer Programme, which aims to encourage local developers to develop apps that are relevant to the SA and global market.’

All these initiatives represent steps towards closing the digital gender gap by bringing girls and women into the digital world – to use connectivity not only for their socials but also as a tool for economic benefit and to improve their lives. The possibilities are boundless.

By Silke Colquhoun
Image: Gallo/Getty Images