Cheap devices, big returns: AU and GSMA push digital access

The economics of getting affordable devices into African hands took centre stage at a bilateral meeting between the African Union Commission and the GSMA, held on the sidelines of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2026 (PP-26). The two organisations explored cooperation on digital inclusion, with the cost and accessibility of digital devices, the meaningful use of digital services and language barriers all on the table.

H.E. Lerato D. Mataboge, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission, met with Vivek Badrinath, Director General of the GSMA. The pairing brought together the continent’s policy machinery and the industry body representing mobile network operators, two actors whose interests converge on expanding the market for connected services across Africa.

The talks also carried an institutional agenda. Both sides focused on implementing the outcomes of the sixth session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Communication and ICT (STC-CICT-6), and on preparations for the African Union’s 2027 Theme of the Year, titled “AU at the Dawn of its 25th Anniversary: Leveraging the Full Potential of SAATM and New Technologies for Continental Integration.”

Device affordability, usage and language were identified as the priority areas for cooperation. The framing matters commercially as well as socially: barriers that prevent some populations from benefiting fully from digital opportunities also constrain the addressable market for operators and technology providers, making inclusion a shared interest between the public and private sides of the sector.

Meanwhile, the meeting signals a continuation of the African Union’s effort to align its digital agenda with industry partners capable of mobilising investment and infrastructure. For the GSMA, engagement with the Commission offers a route into policy frameworks shaping how connectivity markets develop across the continent. The Commission, in turn, gains a channel to the companies that build and operate the networks on which inclusion depends.

In a statement, the African Union Commission’s Infrastructure and Energy Department said strategic partnerships and collective efforts remain important to advancing the continent’s digital transformation and building an inclusive, connected Africa. The department’s emphasis on collective effort reflects the position that neither governments nor industry can deliver the inclusion agenda alone, and that coordinated investment and policy will determine how quickly the gaps in access, use and language are closed.

The PP-26 conference provided the setting for the exchange, a gathering where telecommunications policy is negotiated at a global level and where bilateral meetings between regulators, governments and industry leaders shape the cooperation that follows. For investors and market watchers, the question is whether the areas of cooperation identified between the Commission and the GSMA translate into concrete programmes that lower device costs, deepen usage and remove linguistic barriers, each of which would expand the commercial base of Africa’s digital economy while extending its benefits to populations currently left out.