Kenya has most Internet users in Africa, study shows
Kenya leads Africa in Internet penetration with over 30 million people, according to a report.
The report by Jumia Business Intelligence and GSMA Mobile titled White Paper 2017: Trends from the Kenyan Smartphone and E-Commerce Industry, showed that 67 per cent of the population in Kenya are Internet users.
This translates to 32 million Internet users going by the projected population of about 48 million people. Two in every three Kenyans have access to the Internet.
This is way better than the average Internet penetration in Africa where only 18 per cent of the total population is defined as Internet users.
SMARTPHONES
In what Mr Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya country manager, called “the democratisation of smartphones”, this trend has been largely driven by a reduction in the price of smartphones which has more than halved from Sh23,100 in 2013 to Sh9,700 in 2016 with the lowest price smartphone currently being sold at Sh2,799.
“The competitive landscape in the smartphone industry has shifted over the last five years as Chinese brands dominate and drive the democratisation of smartphones. This is accelerated by Chinese brands Infinix, Tecno and InnJoo entering into the market with high spec phones and decreasing price points,” said Mr Chappatte while addressing the media on Wednesday during the launch of the study at Sarova Stanley in Nairobi.
He, however, said there remained a significant opportunity to take the boost the uptake of smartphones upcountry as they are mostly concentrated in urban areas.