Uganda ranks second in East Africa via Internet Growth.

According to an article that ran in The NewVision of 6^th November, 2018, Uganda ranks second (2^nd) in the East Africa region when it comes to internet growth after its neighbor Kenya. The Pearl of Africa whose internet penetration stands at 44% has experienced the fastest growth rate in the past 17 years (since 2000) according to the latest Internet User Statistic for Africa as Moses Walubiri narrates in the article. The data was largely obtained from the International Telecommunications Union and Facebook.

The neighbors, Kenya have one of the highest penetration rates in the Region Africa at 85%.

Other countries within the region that is Tanzania, Rwanda have a penetration at 38.95% and 29.8% respectively whereas Burundi takes the last position at 12%.

This implies that Uganda is above the expected average for Africa (by 9%) that is 35% but below the global average by 10.4% that stands at at 54.4.%.

Copy of A Table Showing Internet Growth Among Some African Countries.

Global average: 54.4%

African average: 35%

As seen from the table above, higher internet growth has been observed in Western and Northern regions that is Libya, Mali, Senegal, Morocco as compared to countries that lie within the East, Central and Southern Africa that is Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Malawi.

However, there are some exceptional cases of Sierra Leone, Niger, Togo among others that disqualify the statement above.

Reasons for the High Growth Rate.

According to the Jumia mobile report that was released earlier on the year, Lower price smartphones majorly dominated by Trans-Holding company that is TECNO, Infinix, and iTel and other brand cheap smart phones from SAMSUNG, FERO MOBILE, NOKIA led in terms of sales. The report further added that TECNO is top Smartphone brand in Uganda while Infinix is Africa’s top smartphone.

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The Average Price of Smartphones via Jumia has reduced over the past years with $83 for 2017, $135 for 2016 and $167 for 2015 which has made phones more affordable to the population hence contribution to the internet growth.

Currently telcos also offer cheaper smartphones with good specs such as the recently launched Airtel 4G Smartphone that goes for UGX 200,000.

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In an article by the Daily Monitor, the National IT Survey 2017/2018 conducted by the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U),reports that out of the sampled 2,700 people from government ministries, departments, agencies, local governments and households across the state 70.9% own mobile phones which would amount to 24.8 of the total population.

This showed above 20% rise as compared to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) 2014 Access and Usage of Communication Services Across Uganda study revealed 52.3% three years ago.

When it came to internet usage, it was discovered that the lack of necessary skills of using internet coupled with its high cost and low speeds all usually being experienced in rural areas affected its penetration.

The Youth and Smartphones.

With the youth group having the biggest population percentage in Uganda, out of the entire 15.8% of Ugandans that own smartphones, 28% of these are youth between 15-24 years. This could justify one of the reasons as to why the country’s internet penetration growth is high.

Aside from mobile and smart phones, telcos too have played a major role in pushing the above numbers through extension of cheap and fast internet services across the country.

Among this internet user groups, some Ugandans use the net use it to access social media sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter but with the introduction of the social media taxes we are yet to assess the impact this will have on the internet growth in Uganda.

Will it be a short lived celebration or will the growth remain consistent?