3 trends to expect in African mobile app market in 2022

The mobile app market has grown over the years driven by continuous improvement in devices, growing consumer income, and an era of digital normal that compels businesses to go online or not survive.

A report launched by AppsFlyer, a mobile analytics platform, and Google shows a thriving African mobile app market, driven by the fast-growing fintech space, rise in super apps, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the African mobile industry continued to show incredible resilience against the impact of the global pandemic and experienced high growth as digital solutions provided instrumental support to support communities and businesses.

However, with mobile markets developing in Africa, the 3 major trends that are set to dominate the African Mobile App market in 2022 are stated below.

Increased investment in Mobile applications

After research carried out by Appsflyer, analyzing over 6000 apps and 2 billion installs across Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, the report shows that the African mobile App market reveals strong growth, with overall installs increasing by 41 percent.

This report shows that Nigerian had the highest growth with 43 percent uplift with South Africa running up with 37 percent while Kenya follows with 29 percent.

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Heading into 2022, experts have revealed that there is no way back in investing in mobile applications as it has been seen to be a key player in economic recovery.

Daniel Junowicz, RVP EMEA and Strategic Project at AppsFlyer noted Africa’s opportunity to transform itself into a digitally focussed continent has been boosted by the digitalisation demands of the global pandemic.

“The momentum that many companies, most notably in the retail and finance industries, have carried on their digital transformation journeys shows no signs of slowing as we head into 2022. With Africa being hampered on the road to recovery from the pandemic by low vaccine rates, businesses will increasingly look to capitalize on a growing digitally conscious audience,” Daniel said.

According to Briter Bridges, African startups raised $4.65 billion in disclosed funding last year, with 62 percent flowing towards fintech companies. Increasing web and in-person traffic towards mobile experiences will be a primary focus for traditional businesses as they expand their investment into mobile applications and mobile app marketing which is likely to account for more in the overall marketing budget.

Growth in mobile commerce to drive customer experience and brand loyalty

Daniel explained that Industries like mobile commerce will continue to experience exponential growth going into 2022 in Africa as more consumers, especially previously non-tech-savvy shoppers, become increasingly familiar with shopping online via mobile applications.

He noted that social commerce is predicted to take up more space in the overall mobile marketing space, therefore, developing an engaging user experience to enhance brand loyalty is highly important.

E-commerce App marketing report carried out by AppFlyers, reveals that the growth of the app shows no sign of slowing as it shows an increase of 55 percent on Android and 32 percent on iOS in 2021 and consumer spend climbing 55 percent overall with more people accessing goods and services online.

According to the strategic manager, intense competition for attention should push the market towards innovative mobile applications, which will certainly appeal to consumers and maintain higher brand loyalty.

Super Apps and Fintech apps to become more common

A super-app is a mobile application that provides multiple services including payment and financial transaction processing, effectively becoming an all-encompassing self-contained commerce and communication online platform that embraces many aspects of personal and commercial life.

The App emerged from China, a country with a huge population, significant consumer purchasing power, and underserved industries similar to Africa.

According to Daniel, Africa has the potential to be a significant market for Super apps, especially Fintech.

By the end of 2021, there were 548 million registered accounts in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, over 150 million of which were active monthly by the
end of 2021, making 43 percent of the total active mobile money accounts in the world.

These apps offer convenience to consumers, as they provide the basic infrastructure needed by the unbanked population and easy access to a wide range of services.

Nigeria’s Opay and Kenya’s M-Pesa serve good examples in Africa as well as Uber and Bolt’s expansions from car-hailing apps into
food delivery.

“Expect to see businesses grow and diversify the capabilities of their apps through embedding their suite of features into people’s everyday lives,” Daniel added.

However, he stated that moving into 2022, the race to dominate the digital retail and consumer landscape for super apps is on.