In DR Congo, telecom companies generate an average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) for mobile Internet of USD 1.61 per month. This official June 2019 figure remains low compared to other sub-Saharan African markets. Nigeria is over $7 and the Republic of Congo is around $10.
According to a GSMA study published in 2018, this low level of ARPU is largely due to the low level of per capita income, which is about one-third of the sub-Saharan African average, i.e. US$500 and the limited penetration of 3G and 4G services of 17% in June 2019 (a rate that is still below the regional average above 20%).
This requires the Congolese Government to implement reforms to encourage investment to boost connectivity and accessibility to this universal service.
They are still hampered by the slow deployment of 3G and 4G technologies, deficiencies in transport and electricity infrastructure that raise the costs of installing networks across the country, and heavy taxation with a higher tax rate of 54.6% compared to 46.8% in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
All these factors currently make access to Internet services limited and costly.
While the lack of accessibility is largely due to low per capita income, this study by GSMA and Ernst & Young also reveals that it also reflects a high tax burden on the use of services (26% of the cost of owning mobile phones in the DRC) and devices (44% of the cost) compared to other countries in the region.
In other words, since the purchasing power of the average Congolese citizen is already low, tax taxation increases the costs of access to services and does not encourage investment in the sector.
Because, the State levies 20% customs duties on each smartphone entering the DRC as much as any SIM card. They are then charged 16% VAT as much as any recharging of units. Finally, a 10% excise duty is payable on telecommunications services including voice calls (call duration) and Internet (number of bytes).
Reminder. Average revenue per user (ARPU) is this indicator of the average monthly revenue that a subscription generates for its operator over a period of one month. It applies in particular to voice calls, mobile money and mobile data.
In the second quarter of the current year, global mobile Internet ARPU increased by around 14.81%. In other words, the average consumption of a subscriber increased from USD 1.40 to USD 1.61 per month.
Mobile Internet subscriptions were respectively around 18.381 billion megabytes in the second quarter, compared to 11.990 billion megabytes in the previous quarter, an increase of 53.30% over the same period.
Eric TSHIKUMA