By: Juliet Gillies
In our previous article, we saw how Africa is advancing in terms of internet connectivity and social media (SM) use. In this article, we dig into some details about how people in Africa are using the internet, as per the data to end 2021.
We know that average internet users worldwide as a percentage of total population (7.91 billion) is
62.5%, and that SM users is 58.4%, but that there are with wide variations between regions and
between countries in regions. But how are they connecting and to what extent has technology become a part of daily life?
One aspect of all these matters is GDP per capita, as GDP obviously links to purchasing the technology and data that provide access to the internet. The data to end 2021 shows that the worldwide average GDP per capita is US$17062. So how does Africa fare in comparison? The dataset includes 46 selected countries, with Singapore at one end (US$98526) and Kenya at the other. There are only 5 other countries in Africa in this list, and there are no countries in Africa above the worldwide average. The graph below shows the African countries reported on, in comparison with the highest and lowest countries not in Africa, plus the worldwide average. Egypt leads in Africa, with US$12608, followed by South Africa (US$12096), Morocco (US$7296), Ghana (US$5586), Nigeria (US$5187) then Kenya (US4452).
Ownership of a mobile phone is very high worldwide (96.6%) and this leads to the very high (92.1%) figure for accessing the internet via a mobile phone. The full dataset of percentage of internet users aged 16-64 (not percentage of total population) who own each type of device and who use each type of device to access the internet shows that 63.1% of internet users own a computer, while 34.8% own a tablet. Connecting using own computer is high (71.2%), and 29.4% also connect using a work computer. Connecting using a tablet is much lower, at 28.2%.Internet users aged 16-64 (%).
Device ownership and usage also links to age, as it links to earnings. The younger age groups may still be at school or college, and may own a mobile phone as a teenager, but probably not a smart home device or a virtual reality device. So it is worth noting that the median age of the world population is 31.4, but there are significant differences between countries. The dataset includes 47 countries plus the worldwide average. I have used all the African countries included plus the top and bottom countries outside of Africa to see how the median age compares, as this might be part of the reason (but by no means the whole reason) for the lower connectivity and lower GDP. For example: Japan has a median age of 49.2 and a GDP per capital of US$41053; Singapore has a median age of 43.2 and a GDP per capita of US$98526. In comparison, Kenya has a median age of 20.7 and a GDP per capital of US$4452.
Obviously, then, comparing the GDP per capital of one country to another often provides little useful information or obvious ‘disinformation’ in some cases. Unfortunately, much of the reporting that has been done over the years expounds on one variable alone, e.g. GDP per capita, without logical reasoning about the reasons why it is so, e.g. mature vs young or twenty years of working experience vs still at college.
So if we look at the GDP per capital in Africa, this dataset of 6 countries shows that Egypt leads, followed by South Africa, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria then Kenya. But in terms of median age of population, the order for these 6 countries is: Morocco, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria then Kenya. So, in this group of countries: Egypt has the 3rd youngest population, but the highest GDP; Morocco has the highest median age, but is 3rd in terms of GDP. This suggests that Egypt is doing much better on GDP than is suggested by the GDP data alone.
South Africa is second in both datasets, while Ghana is 4th in both. Nigeria is 5th in terms of GDP, but 6th in terms of median age. So, the same principle applies again, i.e. it may be doing better on GDP than the GDP data alone suggests. Conversely, Kenya is 5th in terms of median age, but 6th in terms of GDP.
