Despite reports of a slowdown in mobile connections, mobile data revenue in Africa is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.2 percent between 2014 and 2020, reaching $25.8 billion by the end of 2020, according to U.K-based market analysts Ovum, Out-Law.com reports.

Sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly closing in on the global penetration rate of mobile phone use, Swedish company Ericsson reported in 2014.

Despite rising competition and weakened economic conditions on the continent, there are growth opportunities in Africa for data connectivity and digital services based on those data connections, said Matthew Reed, Ovum practice leader for Middle East and Africa, Out-Law.com reports.

Growth in Africa’s mobile phone users is set to slow sharply in the next five years, Global industry body GSMA reported in October — to its own surprise, it said — heralding an end to the boom in an industry that fueled the continent’s growth, Reuters reported.

GSMA forecasts African mobile subscriber growth to slow to 6 percent between 2015-2020 compared to 13 percent growth from 2010 to 2015.

The slowdown could be attributed in part to the expense in setting up network coverage in some rural areas, where more than half of the population lives, Reuters reported.

“I am bit surprised by this development because I expected strong growth to continue because the penetration rate in Africa is still well below 100 percent,” Mortimer Hope, GSMA’s Africa director, told Reuters.

While some players have left the market, others are entering or expanding in the African telecoms market, bringing new investment, according to a new report by Ovum, Out-Law reports.

Mobile broadband connections in Africa, which reached 147 million at the end of 2014, are expected to be at 1 billion in 2020, according to Ovum.

Growth of mobile broadband in Africa over the next few years will be driven by increasing affordability of smartphones, and factors such as the ongoing rollout of 3G W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access) and 4G LTE (long term evolution) networks, Ovum said.

“Both established and new operators in Africa are increasingly focusing their efforts on the data and digital services markets,” Ovum said. “The number of FTTx (broadband network) subscriptions on the continent will grow strongly, albeit from a low base, and will cross the 1 million mark in 2020, reaching 1.2 million at end-2020.”

“The South African market is among the most advanced on the continent, so it is to be expected that it leads in potential for digital media services,” Reed said. “Nevertheless, the index shows that there are digital media opportunities across the continent.

Although the pace of growth in overall connection numbers in Africa has slowed and the regional industry is facing headwinds from rising competition and weaker economic conditions, Reed said there are substantial growth opportunities in African data connectivity and digital services based on those data connections.

Ovum said it has sought to quantify the drivers and inhibitors of growth within each country’s digital media market by assessing key market metrics related to the extent of connectivity, device adoption, the current availability of content and services, the addressable audience, the ability to monetize content, and each country’s cultural readiness.

Ovum’s Digital Media Opportunity Index for Sub-Saharan Africa considered more than 50 metrics across 20 sub-Saharan African to identify each country’s potential to grow as a market for digital media content and services, including apps, digital music services, digital publishing, OTT video services, and video gaming.

So where are the best digital media opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa? Ovum assigned each country a score out of five. We’ve listed them from lowest-scoring country to highest. Check it out here.