Last year saw the birth of the seven billionth Earth citizen. He or she and another one billion people are among the minority who are not yet mobile phone users, unlike the other six billion. More than a third of these one billion future customers are in Africa, where mobile market penetration currently stands at about 65% of the continent’s one billion strong population, making it the region with the biggest remaining growth potential in the world.

But that’s not where it ends: According to UN forecasts, the planet’s population will swell to 9.3 billion by 2050. More than half of this growth in the next 38 years will take place in Africa, where the population is expected to more than double to 2.2 billion. In comparison, Asia and the Americas will grow by 25% and Europe will hardly grow at all.

While this growth will undoubtedly bring a range of challenges to Africa, it also means that by 2050 the market for telecom services (and for many other goods and services) will grow by an additional 1.5 billion people in Africa, representing almost half of the total market expansion worldwide.

Will most of those next 1.5 billion customers be in remote areas and hard to reach? No. By 2050 the majority of Africa’s population will be living in urban areas, where telecom infrastructure is best and relatively easy to roll out and upgrade. An additional 800 million people will be living in Africa’s cities by 2050 (taking the total to 1.2 billion), compared to 500 million in India and 340 million in China, representing 300% growth in urbanisation in Africa compared to 70% in Asia.

Will they be able to afford the goods and services? Yes. Some 30,000 Africans enter the middle class every day – again the highest growth rate in the world. These are 30,000 new customers every day who are able to afford not only basic telecommunication services but also the internet and all the services it brings, and are receptive to advertising through their mobile phones and internet connections for all kinds of products and services.