Samsung Electronics plans tap into a growing demand for smartphones by a growing middle class in Africa to sell half of the smartphones bought on the continent this year and double that amount in 2014, reported Moneyweb.

Africa has a growing young population that is increasingly tech savvy and urbanized. This is attracting foreign sellers of consumer products like smartphones, especially as markets stagnate or shrink in more developed nations.

Despite growing popularity for higher capability phones across Africa, smartphones remain a novelty for many due to the high poverty and unemployment levels. At the end of 2012, sub-Saharan smartphone penetration was 4 percent, compared with a global average of 17 percent, according to industry body GSMA.

Thabiet Allie, head of content and services for Samsung Electronics Africa, told a telecoms conference in Cape Town on Tuesday the mobile phone maker will ship 50 percent of all the smartphones in Africa this year. Out of the 100 million or so mobile phones sold in Africa this year, 20 million are smartphones and slightly more than half of those are models made by the South Korean company, he said.

“Next year we are looking at doubling this number and the year after probably doing a substantial increase,” Allie said at the annual AfricaCom conference.

GSMA forecasts smartphones will constitute 20 percent of the Africa market by 2017 as devices priced at below $50 become a reality. Smartphone use in South Africa is already slightly above the global average, with Blackberry a market leader.

Other phone makers that are targeting  Africa’s smartphone market include Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest networking-equipment manufacturer, which aims to become one of the top three smartphone vendors globally by 2018.

There are few known smartphone assembly firms in Africa. Some two South African companies, Seemahale Telecoms and CZ Electronics, partnered earlier this year to design, develop and manufacture the first smartphones in Africa.