Why Nigeria is the key mobile market in Africa
African mobile marketing company Twinpine has launched a Nigerian mobile trend report, looking at how users are consuming data and using mobile, highlighting why Nigeria is the biggest and key mobile market in Africa.
1. Nigeria most mobilised country in the world
Africa is the mobile only continent and Nigeria is officially the most “mobilised” country in the world with 76% of all traffic in Nigeria coming through mobile according to the report.
2. Mobile and smartphone penetration growing
Mobile penetration is at 40%, with 75m unique mobile users in Nigeria out of a population of 185M, with smartphone users growing from 4m to 15.5m between 2011 and 2016.
3. Mobile video to drive 70% of all data traffic by 2021
Video is growing with 69% of Nigerians watching video daily on mobile. Twinpine reports that 45% of video views in Nigeria come from people aged 25 – 34, with 77% being male. Nigerians consume 6.7 hours of video per month and they predict that 70% of all video traffic will be from video by 2021.
4. Mobile money penetration still low but usage growing
While 34.6% of mobile users send money using banking apps, penetration of traditional mobile money solutions such as Paga is still low with only 6.2% using mobile money providers, while over 35% of mobile users have not transferred money before. That said, those who use mobile banking and payments seem to like it, with 68% sending money to friends and family while 4% use mobile to give money to churches.
5. Price of data is falling
While the cost of data is high for local consumer, competition between local MNO’s has ensured that the actual buying power for Nigerians has increased over time with 1000 naira now buying 15 times more data that in 2011.
Economic circumstances may hamper growth for the short term, but the Nigerian mobile market is the most exciting mobile market in Africa, which long term will see continued growth, greater sophistication and adoption of mobile services.
