South Africa Overtaken By Nigeria In Internet Penetration

Oil rich Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the country with highest Internet penetration in Africa at 29 percent, this is followed by Egypt, Morocco and Kenya. South Africa which is the continent’s economic powerhouse is low compared to other leading economies in Africa due to high broadband cost and a lack of infra, structure, a study said on Tuesday.
According to the study commissioned by Google South Africa, South Africa had 8.5 million internet users in 2011, compared to 6.8 million people in 2010.
“This growth brings internet penetration in South Africa to approximately 17 percent,” said the report.
“Despite rapid growth, however, it lags significantly behind the biggest internet user bases in Africa”.
Growth in South Africa, could be attributed to the propagation of smartphones to access the internet, which took off in 2008.
“It should also be borne in mind that access and cost remains the biggest obstable to internet connectivity, particularly in less developed areas,” said Luke Mckend, Google SA country manager.
According to the reports: About 150,000 Small and medium scale enterprises in South Africa would not be able to survive without their web presence. Currently, SME accounts for about 7.8-million jobs in South Africa, this implies that as many as 1.56-million jobs would be in jeopardy were it not for the Internet.
It is expected that this year’s arrival of an undersea fibre-optic cable, which connects large parts of Africa with the world will improve broadband connectivity across the continent.
Culled from techtalkafrica