An estimated 48 per cent or 76.8 million people still lack access to the Internet with majority of affected located in the rural and semi-urban area where Internet connectivity is still low, New Telegraph findings have shown. This is coming just as the total number of mobile individuals connected to the Internet grew to 88.1 million, representing a 52 per cent Internet teledensity in the country. While the National Population Commission (NPC) estimates the county’s population to have reached 170 million, the teledensity is based on the initial 160 million population figure.
As at May, this year, the latest data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator, showed that Internet subscriptions grew by 30 per cent year-on-year to 88.1 million in May. This represents a density of 52 per cent, placing Nigeria well above the African average of around 16 per cent as estimated by McKinsey, a research firm. According to experts, the surge in Internet penetration has enhanced trade by spurring e-commerce transactions. Based on industry information, the leading online stores are said to have achieved about N1.5 billion worth of transactions per month. Meanwhile, the NCC has said that Nigeria’s five submarine fibre-optic cables operators – MainOne, Globacom, MTN Group, NITEL and Dolphin Telecoms are expected to facilitate ubiquitous internet and broadband services.
In 2013, when the Federal Government approved the broadband plan, broadband Internet penetration stood at just six per cent, while it increased to eight per cent last year. Submarine cables have about 19.2 terabytes in capacity across Africa, including over 340 gigabytes bandwidth capacity in Nigeria. As at 2014, investment in submarine cable systems across Africa was approximately $20 billion, with Nigeria accounting for 35 per cent of this figure. Over the past few years, the broadband sector has attracted sizeable investment with plans ongoing by the NCC to attract additional $10 billion into the sector over the next five years.
Experts expect that the new government will build upon existing policies geared towards expanding the industry. Though, the country has an auspicious target of 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018, in line with its National Broadband Plan (NBP), the pace has been slow and the country’s submarine cable capacity utilisation rate is still less than 10 per cent. The Global Connectivity Index (GCI), a quantitative assessment tool, ranks Nigeria 47th globally and places the country among the top three emerging broadband markets. GCI is promoted by Huawei, the large Chinese telecoms operator.
The report, which is the second annual GCI of Huawei released in Shenzhen, China, recently, ranked 50 economies in terms of connectivity, ICT usage, and digital transformation. The index focuses on a total of 38 variables such as networks, connectivity, computing, mobile adoption, digital economy, service demand and ecommerce to determine the position of each of the 50 nations. The variables are divided across four areas namely supply, demand, experience and potential being measured and analysed.
The 50 countries are listed under three categories namely leaders, followers and beginners on the GCI list. According to the report, South Africa and Egypt are ranked number 33 and 36 respectively and fall under the followers’ category. While, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana fall under the beginners section of the index, the countries are ranked 42, 43, 46, 47, and 48 respectively. However, industry experts say to ensure ICT growth, African countries need to develop national broadband strategies to compete with developing nations.
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