South Africans Spend 24.7% Of Income On Mobile Services

Nationally, South African Internet users spend 24.7 percent of their income on mobile services including data and voice, according to a Fin24 report.

Anything more than 5 percent in unaffordable, according to the International Telecommunication Union, said Alan Winde, minister of economic opportunities in the Western Cape.

The South African average monthly spend on a cellphone for voice and data is 210 rand ($13.06) per month, according to an Oct. 19 2015 BusinessTech report.

It’s worse in Malawi, where citizens spend more than $12 a month on average for mobile phones — that’s more than 50 percent of what an ordinary Malawian earns in a month, BBC reported in February 2015.

The universities of Cape Town and Western Cape conducted research commissioned by the provincial Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

This article was published here