Nigeria ranked number one in internet usage in Africa

Digitalfacts, a publication produced by digitXplus, has ranked Nigeria number one in internet usage in Africa, with 63 million people from the world’s most populous black nation and Africa largest economy reported to have access to the internet.

According to the publication, fifteen countries have the highest number of internet users in the world, while China (632 million), USA (269 m) and India (198m) top the list, Nigeria was ranked 9th globally after Germany 68 million users, and a position above the United Kingdom 57 million users.

The data also showed that Nigeria has maintained an upward trend since 2011 — when there were just 35.7 million internet users, before the number jumped to 42.8 million; 51.8m; 57.7m and 63.2m in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Accordingly, the total number of internet users worldwide rose 8.9 percent from 2.9 billion recorded in 2014 to 3.2 billion by December 2015.

However, the report attributed Nigeria steady increase in internet users to a broad mobile usage, made possible by the Nigerian telecom sector, one of the largest in Africa.

“Rapid expansion of the wireless networks and competition has driven down voice tariffs and made basic cellular services affordable, especially for the poorer rural consumers,” said Digitalfacts.

It should be recalled that PayPal Inc. ranked Nigeria 3rd highest mobile shopper worldwide in July, with N128.1 billion ($610 million) spent in 2015 via PayPal, and on target for about N172 billion ($819 million) in 2016.

Also, early this year, Facebook Inc. affirmed Nigeria as its largest Market in Africa, with 16 million Nigerians reportedly visiting Facebook every month through their mobile devices, edging out South Africa 12 million monthly users.

“The future of businesses in the world’s most populous black nation will be determined by how mobile friendly they are,” said Samed Olukoya, a foreign exchange research analyst at Investors King Ltd. “The earlier businesses integrate mobile friendly platform/application to their core business model, the better users experience and their retention power,” he added.