The African continent fared world’s second highest when Traffic compared the global internet and mobile phone usage statistics of the current decade. The region’s internet penetration rate between the years 2000 and 2008 grew to a whopping 1,031%, pulling Africa upwards on the list of countries with highest internet usage. African countries with the highest number of internet users include Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa, Algeria, Sudan, Kenya and Tunisia. With over 44 million internet users, these countries constitute over 82% of total African users.
Of all African countries, Nigeria fared the second highest in internet penetration, and the fastest growing mobile market with triple-digit growth rates. As of June 2009, Nigeria’s population count was 149,229,090 and the number of internet users touched 149,229,090 constituting 7.4% of the whole population. The country boasted 500 broadband internet subscribers as of September 2007 with more than 400 ISPs licensed so far. Nigeria is Africa’s topmost competitive fixed-line market with over 50 companies licensed to provide fixed telephony services.
Several key growth indicators point to the fact that internet penetration in Nigeria is all set for further and much faster growth. One powerful indicator is the country’s user group of online YMC (Young Minded Consumers) aged between 18 and 34, the biggest in the continent. This age group alone leaves a great capacity for a remarkable expansion in Nigerian internet penetration. Also the fact that only 7.4% of Nigeria’s total population is online indicates further acceleration in the local internet industry. The biggest growth indicator is none other than Nigeria’s rapid internet growth itself - between the years 2000 and 2009, the country escalated to the whopping 5400% increase in the internet usage. Seeing these impressive growth figures, it won’t take one to be an expert to predict further and faster internet penetration in the country.
Social media trends in Nigeria are also positive and the number of users is escalating fast. The following African Facebook demographics place Nigeria in the 5th place with 340,040 users, preceded by Tunisia and followed by Kenya, with South Africa taking the first place with most Facebook users in the continent. Considering Nigeria’s fast growing internet penetration one might foretell the country’s passing Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt to take South Africa’s place with most Facebook users in the continent.
Twitter usage is also growing exponentially among Nigerian internet users. Nigeria stands among the African countries having most Twitter usage. Twitter is amongst the top 100 most visited sites in Nigeria ranking number 28 most visited site on Alexa.
Top 5 of the most visited international sites in Nigeria include:
While the country’s top 5 local sites include:
As for mobile phone usage, the country has the continent’s fastest growing market. Nigeria’s growth rates in mobile penetration have remained triple-digit every year since 2002. It was in 2004 that the country passed Egypt and Morocco to become the region’s second largest mobile market after South Africa. But according to market experts, even this amazing growth rate is only a quarter of Nigeria’s estimated market potential.
