Social Media’s slow but steady advance in Africa

• Social media usage in Africa has turned up interesting data in the past year with Nigeria overtaking Kenya in the most time spent.
• Social media users as a percentage of population still varies widely between regions around the world, from a high of 85% in Northern Europe to a low of 8% in Central Africa.
• All five of the African regions were below the worldwide average, with Northern Africa (56%) showing the highest rate, followed by Southern Africa (45%) in the use of social media.
• Daily time spent on social media in Nigeria grew from 3h41min at end 2020 to 4h07min at end 2021 and is now leading in Africa, having overtaken Kenya (now 3h03min), which led at end 2020 (3h42min).

 

A few months ago, we looked at the state of social media (SM) in Africa to end December 2020. According to the data, social media usage indices to end 2020 showed that:

• The worldwide average for users of SM as a percentage of population was 53.6% (4.2 billion people).
• All five African regions were a long way below the leading regions in the world, e.g. Northern Europe (79%), Western Europe (79%) North American (74%).
• Morocco had the highest SM user rate (59.3%), followed by Egypt (47.4%) and South Africa (41.9%).
• Only Morocco was above the worldwide average of 53.6%.
• Apart from Morocco, all other African countries were a long way below the leading countries in the world in terms of percentage of SM users, e.g.: UAE – 99%; South Korea – 89.3%; Taiwan – 88.1%.
• In terms of time spent on SM per day by internet users aged 16-64, Kenya was at the top in Africa (3h42min) and in fourth position overall (in the selected dataset). Nigeria (3h41min) was only 1 minute behind. South Africa (3h32min), Ghana (3h08min), Egypt (3h06min) and Morocco (2h29min) also showed very high rates.
• The worldwide average for time spent on SM per day by internet users aged 16-64 was 2h25min, so all the African countries indicated above were above the worldwide average.

In this article, we look at some of the most important changes in the area of social media usage in Africa in the year to December 2022, using the annual report on the relevant data published by Hootsuite/WeAreSocial/DataReportal.

The global and regional picture shows that SM users as a percentage of total internet users was 93.4%. The worldwide average for users of SM as a percentage of population rose to 58.4% and 4.62 billion. It was 74.8% of total population aged 13+.

Social media users as a percentage of population still varies widely between regions around the world, from a high of 85% in Northern Europe to a low of 8% in Central Africa. All five of the African regions were below the worldwide average, with Northern Africa (56%) showing the highest rate, followed by Southern Africa (45%). The other three regions show much lower rates: Western Africa – 16%; Eastern Africa – 10%; Central Africa – 8%. Northern Africa showed the most year-on-year (YoY) growth, followed by Southern Africa.

There are also still wide variations between countries around the world and even between countries in regions. The African countries included in the dataset of selected countries around the world shows that, in Africa, Morocco has the highest rate of SM users as a percentage of population, and it is still growing.

It is also the only country in Africa above the worldwide average. Egypt and South Africa follow, and are both still growing and closing in on the worldwide average. Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria are a long way behind, but still well ahead of the African countries with the lowest rates, e.g. Ethiopia, DRC, South Sudan, Malawi, Chad, CAR, Niger and Eritrea. Importantly, some countries that showed no data at end 2020, are now reporting social media use.

Daily time spent on SM per day by internet users aged 16-64 continues to grow at widely varying rates. The worldwide average is now 2h27min – up 2min from 2h25min at end 2020. The big story here is Nigeria and Ghana, as well as Kenya, but for a different reason.

Nigeria grew from 3h41min at end 2020 to 4h07min at end 2021 and is now leading in Africa, having overtaken Kenya (now 3h03min), which led at end 2020 (3h42min). Kenya is the only country that shows YoY contraction.

Both Nigeria and Kenya are well above the worldwide average, as is Ghana (3h58min), which showed strong YoY growth and has now overtaken South Africa (3h43min), which showed slower YoY growth. Also above the worldwide average (by 2min) is Morocco, still at 2h29, with no YoY growth seen.