Poor infrastructure and high phone and internet costs have disconnected 120 million Nigerians from the mobile internet despite a monthly internet usage growth of 501.99 per cent over five years, GSMA, the global body for telcos, has revealed.
However, gaps in digital infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, coupled with the high cost of smartphones, have left millions excluded from the digital wave. “Unfortunately, the high costs of these devices have made them out of reach for many,” Sowho stated when MTN launched a device financing scheme in 2022.
According to GSMA’s ‘The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2024’ report, these 120 million Nigerians are part of the more than 3.1 billion people who do not use mobile internet—and likely don’t use the internet at all—despite coverage being where they live.
More people than ever are accessing the internet through mobile devices. By the end of 2023, mobile internet users increased to 4.6 billion (57 per cent of the global population).
“Mobile is the primary — in some cases, only — way most access the internet in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Mobile accounted for 84 percent of broadband connections in 2023,” GSMA said.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest connectivity levels and the largest coverage gap. Connectivity is highest in Southern and Western Africa, at around 30 per cent, and lowest in Central Africa, at 19 per cent. Africa’s most populous nation ranks fifth among the top 20 countries with the most mobile internet usage gaps.
Rural areas in Nigeria suffer the most from this divide, where smartphone penetration remains low. While smartphone usage in urban Nigeria rose slightly to 59 per cent in 2023, it fell from 32 per cent to 26 per cent in rural areas. Similarly, mobile internet use in urban regions stands at 59 per cent, compared to just 28 per cent in rural areas.
According to Karl Toriola, chief executive officer of MTNN, high costs are hindering digital inclusion. Between 2022 and 2024, inflation (15.6 percent in January 2022) has eroded consumers’ purchasing power, making phones more expensive. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), inflation wiped N7.61 trillion off consumer spending in 2023.
Nigeria has a 90,000-kilometer fibre infrastructure gap, leading to slow and unreliable internet access. “Last-mile infrastructure (fibre) is important to the end-user experience,” said Chris Wood, chief executive officer of WIOCC Group, an open-access digital infrastructure firm.
“The last mile, the fibre network, is probably the most important thing that needs to be built out, and we are talking about buried fibre, not strung between poles, which becomes very vulnerable to cuts. You want to have a resilient and protected network built underground,” he said.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says that 27 million Nigerians lack access to telecom services, and according to the federal government, about 301 local government areas have no internet access, signifying a large coverage gap.
Other factors hindering mobile internet adoption include limited awareness, unaffordable data plans, concerns about online risks, and a lack of relevant content or services.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, entry-level smartphones cost 99 percent of the average monthly income of the poorest 20 percent. GSMA suggests that reducing the price of an internet-enabled device to $20 could significantly reduce the usage gap.
