The Current State of Internet Penetration in Africa

Image by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL via Flickr

Fewer than four out of 100 Africans currently use the internet, and broadband penetration is below 1%

The above quote from the BBC News Archive made me do some hard research into the current state of broadband penetration in Africa. Is the situation as bleak as it is often described or is there more potential than the region is given credit for? It turns out there’s some validity to both arguments.

Currently Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada are among the world countries leading in both the median speeds being offered to domestic users and the sheer numbers of those connected. But where does this leave Africa?

How Africa Compares

It’s no secret that most African nations have no shot at making it anywhere near the top five on that list any time soon. There simply is a lack of the infrastructure required to truly see the numbers grow. And these are no small hurdles. Reliable electricity still only reaches 5% of the continent’s population. Consider also the fact that there aren’t enough gateways to the undersea cables that connect continents to the internet period. Thus, much of the African continent still connects via satellite which is slow and much harder (and more expensive) to scale.

One of the biggest developments in expanding access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in Africa involves communications infrastructure. The lack of basic infrastructure is historical in the region with the percentage of fixed telephone lines being the lowest worldwide with an average of 4 main lines for 100 people. This in turn constrains the deployment of broadband access via ADSL, which is the main method of fixed broadband access in most countries across the world. Annual mobile growth rates of over 48 per cent over the last five years further lend to Africa being dubbed “the least wired region in the world”. Despite the overall low level of broadband penetration, double and triple-play services similar to other regions are beginning to emerge. Current data and trends suggest that Africa has immense potential to improve its infrastructure deployment and telecommunications usage.

However, despite the hurdles, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2007 Africa ranked 4th in regional broadband penetration behind North America, Western Europe and Central & Eastern Europe. The study sampled six continents in total (with Antarctica being the obvious exception) so coming in 4th ain’t too shabby considering the size of the African continent and the study places Africa leading Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions. Read the full results of the study here.

1% Penetration is 99% Opportunity For Growth

Dr. Hamadoun Toure (ead of the International Telecommunication Union) was quoted in a 2007 BBC interview as saying, “The good news is that Africa has had the highest growth in mobile use globally – twice the global average over the past three years. For the first time economic indicators are positive from Africa.”

If only a fraction of that momentum can be translated to internet penetration (and as mobile penetration continues to skyrocket it’s inevitable) then things could turn around for industry here indeed. Toure also notes that he feels that the key to progress in ICT in Africa doesn’t lie in developmental aid but rather in true engagement with the private sector, “Africa has to create the opportunities; Africa doesn’t need charity. We need to make sure we have a good environment that will attract private sector investment.”

The Internet Cafe Skews All

The other big hurdle to measuring the true number of African internet users is that due to the fact that most connections are incredibly expensive in comparison to the average median income, most people don’t subscribe to anything, let alone connect from home. They save up money and pay to connect from internet cafes or to travel to place where use is free like school or the Library. This means that although use among residents may be low, it’s not as low as some might suspect.

An excerpt from “Telecommunication/ICT Markets and Trends In Africa” (2007)…

Less than three percent of the world’s Internet subscribers, or 10.7 million, were located in Africa in 2006. Taking the population of Africa into consideration, this means that 1.3 percent of the inhabitants were subscribers to an Internet Service Provider (Figure 3.3.1, top right). For Africa, as for other world regions, an Internet subscription is often used by different members of the household, by clients of a cybercafé, by visitors at a library. Therefore it is estimated that the number of effective Internet users in Africa is considerable higher at 4.8 users per 100 persons.

But plenty of other problems persist in other areas…

The African broadband operators typically serve telecommunication services to limited numbers of wealthier inhabitants with extraordinary high prices for bandwidth and voice. As already observed in the mobile boom on the continent, voice and data prices are coming down, while volumes continue to increase. Not only companies, but also governments are very keen on getting fast broadband access to make use of applications like e-commerce or e-government. The availability of reliable broadband access is crucial for investors because it allows the companies to take part in the global division of labor (e.g. outsourcing) and enables governments to take informed and transparent decisions.

Nevertheless, 16 countries in Africa still rely on a single ten Mbps international Internet connection (or less). In at least 25 African countries, broadband was available in 2006. South Africa alone had 881.5 Mbps of international Internet bandwidth in 2006. This statistic alone illustrates the digital divide within Africa. African countries all together had a total of 28’177 Mbps bandwidth available in 2006, while, for instance, Asia accounted for 809’951 Mbps of the world’s 5’504’127 Mbps bandwidth. In comparison, Norway alone had 43’019 Mbps bandwidth in the same year, almost one and a half times more bandwidth than all of Africa. Europe accounted for 3’060’002 Mbps, the Americas for 1’360’991 and Oceania for 245’052 Mbps respectively.

Regarding broadband subscribers, Africa had 1.1 million broadband customers in 2006, compared with 280 million subscribers worldwide (Figure 1.1, Figure 3.4.1, right). This means that one tenth of all African Internet subscribers had signed up for a broadband access. Again, also in broadband subscriptions, the gap between the African regions is tremendous. 75.5 percent of the broadband subscribers or 808’900 subscribers were located in the four northern African countries in 2006, namely Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Since most of these subscribers are concentrated in that region, Sub-Saharan Africa had a much lower broadband penetration of 0.12 per 100 inhabitants.

Key Facts About Africa

(from ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators, 2007)

• 280 million total telephone subscribers, of which some 260 million (over 85%) are mobile cellular subscribers, representing the continent with the highest ratio of mobile to total telephone subscribers of any region in the world.
• is the region with the highest mobile cellular growth rate. Growth over the past 5 years averages almost 65% year on year.
• accounts for 14% of the world’s population, but for only around 7% of all fixed and mobile subscribers worldwide.
• has some 50 million Internet users, for an Internet penetration of just 5%. Europe’s Internet penetration is 8 times higher.
• has a broadband penetration of more than 1% in only a few countries. Broadband penetration in OECD countries exceeds 18%.
• Africa is the second most populated region in the world with 963 million inhabitants. The low fixed, mobile and broadband penetration rates represent real digital opportunity in Africa, both for those already in the region, and those that have not yet secured a foothold.