It’s actually hard for some people to live without internet connection, but that’s the case for half the world’s population. Africa has the lowest number of internet connections with about 22% of the continent having access to the internet.
With the introduction of fibre-optic cables, mobile connections has grown rapidly from just 1% in 2000 to 54% 2012. Africa as a whole has reported about 754 million connection so far in just the sub sahara Region a place known for extreme poverty.
Truth be told, some countries in Africa such as Ghana, Morocco, Seychelles, Tunisia all has recorded 100% mobile subscription penetration which proves to the point that Africa is catching up with the rest of the world.
Data obtained from www.statista.com shows that Nigeria has at least 154 million internet users, which is the highest in Africa.
While the internet has always been there for African countries like Nigeria, it has been restricted or banned to some extent. A study reveals that the internet is usually censored to an extent in Africa across six criterias; torrents, political media, social media, pornography, Virtual Private Network, and VoIP apps.
And while these restrictions seem to be heavy at the first view in Africa, Asia holds a higher point on this list.
So, yes, African countries like Nigeria has the internet and can also access YouTube. The only question to bother yourself with, is how much of it is available and how free is it? YouTube is accessible in Nigeria as it is the 7th most populous country in the world, having the 7th highest number of internet users in the world.
Internet users in Nigeria by net size
As we all know, Nigeria is one of the most populous countries in the world. The most recent period measures almost 102 mobile internet users in Nigeria, and mobile phone internet usage is not a new phenomenon.
Nigeria is said to be a mobile-first market where development and infrastructure skipped the PC adoption, and went straight ahead to the adoption of mobile internet usage via cheap smartphones.
Almost three quarters of Nigerian web traffic is generated through smart phones, and it is at the top of the lost of African countries with the highest share of traffic through mobile.
Other African markets that have a similar share of mobile online traffic with Nigeria includes Ghana and Sudan.
As of 2017, the total number of internet users in Nigeria was 82.09, and in 2021, that number rose to 108.75.
As of January 2021, Nigeria registered about 104 million active million users which makes up for half of the total population of the country.
Data shows that the percentage of the total population with access to the internet in Nigeria decreased in the last years.
Does Africa, like Nigeria, have access to the internet?
As said earlier, every country in the world has access to the internet. So, how can it be that the second largest continent in the world would still be underdeveloped?
In sub-Saharan Africa, mobile technology has faced rapid innovation, but you can’t say the same for internet access. At 170 million users, internet penetration in Africa is at 18 percent, which is lower than the global average of 30 percent, and only one in 10 households has access to the internet.
However, the number of connected users in Africa grew by seven times the global average between the years of 2000 and 2012 according to Internet World Statistics.
Still, the ability to produce software and applications is underdeveloped enough due to the lack of a critical mass gathering knowledge.
Most sub-Saharan African countries has very few professionals, and there are no technology investment operations. The issue is that most of these countries focus on the use and consumption of technology, but not on its production which is what builds up the economy.
The connection of Africa to the world is gradually increasing, and so the connection between African countries. However, there is still hurdle to cross which is the interior connection within a country.
International connectivity has reduced the cost at which individuals can access the internet. However, the lack of infrastructure found in rural areas has restricted this price change within the countries. It seems that companies in Africa doesn’t have a strong commitment to the internet.
In sub-Saharan Africa, governments have totally left infrastructure for the private sectors to handle. Recently, there is a noticed change to the issue with some governments creating infrastructure by themselves and in partnership with the private sector.
What percentage of Nigerians has access to the internet?
2016 featured about 43.01% which has grown considerably since then.
In 2021, 51.44 percent of the Nigerian population had access to the internet. This percentage is set to grow to roughly 59.9 percent in 2026.
References
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Africa
https://www.statista.com/statistics/484918/internet-user-reach-nigeria/
