Telecommunications business in Africa is huge. Revenues are in the tens of billions of dollars annually. Scores of new mobile customers sign up daily in every country. Although the largest markets (ie. Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt) often dominate in terms of online presence, operators in smaller markets are trying to form just as strong relationships with customers.

New Twitter accounts from March 2012-13

In fact, nearly every telecommunications company with African operations has a Twitter account. Not only does a social media account provide a news outlet, but it also provides an interface for customer support. A challenge is the inherent negative nature of customer feedback – complaints often outweigh compliments – but operators keep their tone upbeat. Another barrier for engagement is a lack of Internet users to even find the account in the first place. Twitter accounts representing mobile operators in smaller markets often have fewer than 100 followers despite a customer base in the hundreds of thousands.

We started following all of Africa’s telecom operators in 2011 when we created a Twitter list to keep track of their activity. At the time, only half of the 150+ mobile operators had a Twitter account. As of March 2013, however, nearly all telecoms in Africa have a active social media presence. Key nations without a mobile operator on Twitter come as little surprise and either have extremely low Internet penetration rates or have telecom monopolies: CAR, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Swaziland.

In the past year, we’ve found 36 mobile operators with new Twitter accounts. Many handles were created simply to have a presence but are not actively engaging with customers. Accordingly, they have very few followers. Another reason for lack of followers is a lack of users paying for data services. Most telecom accounts created in the past year have fewer than 100 followers (the median number is 55). They are right to be proactive in addressing customers’ needs, but the engagement is just surprisingly low. Competition likely plays a role here – at least having a social media account builds brand credibility.

Please view our Twitter list of all telecom operators offering service to African markets for the latest updates! The list follows 140+ telecom operators.

PS. The Wikipedia page List of mobile network operators of the Middle East and Africa does a good job showing key companies operating in each African country.