New Telegraph

Mobile phone proliferation dips cybercafé patronage to 0.2%

Internet users have said the proliferation of mobile phones has drastically reduced the patronage of cybercafé, making the business less attractive to investors. According to some of the internet users, who spoke to New Telegraph, surfing internet through their phones is cheaper than going to cybercafé, nothing that provision of internet service by the mobile network operators has also dragged many internet users from café patronage.

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) revealed that the number of Nigerians using cybercafés had reduced to 0.2 per cent while private business subscription rises to seven per cent. It projected that the number may further decrease with the rate at which subscribers especially the youths use their mobile phones for the online activities. The statistics by the agency showed that about 91 per cent of Nigerians now use internet at home while only nine per cent use it in office and other public places. Cyber crimes have also increased the rate of internet usage in Nigeria by the youths who engage in various activities.

The report revealed that public libraries in the country were the least places where the internet is used in Nigeria with just 0.014 per cent followed by public security. It is stated that many schools have not been able to set up e-library, making the internet usage low in academic environment while the facilities for internet are not procured in many public libraries. According to the NCC subscriber matrix, schools and research institutions subscription is – 0.2 per cent while that by the military is 0.03 per cent just as that by multinationals is 0.14 per cent falling below that of hospitals and medical research of 0.25 per cent.

The report, which was prepared by the Policy Competition and Economic Analysis Department of the NCC showed that more nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in the country use the internet with a subscription of 0.19 per cent as against 0.5 per cent by the Government. It was also revealed that the total number of Internet users that connected through Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in the six geopolitical zones in 2021 was 294,257, a 14.5% increase from the 257,085 recorded as at December, 2020. In the breakdown, South- West had the highest number of Internet users in December 2020 with 223,036 users indicating 76 per cent of the total subscriptions while the North-Central had 18 per cent with 52,505 users and the South-East had 0.05 per cent, which was the least of all the regions with 166 users.

The South-South had 6 per cent with 16,652 users, North-West had 0.3 per cent with 866 users and the North-East had 0.22 per cent with 667 users. In 2021, the number ofthose using internet on their phones increased as they were said to have dominated data usage in Nigeria. As of January 2021, Nigeria registered approximately 104 million active internet users, which corresponds to about half of the total population. In the same year, the number of online buyers in Nigeria was at about 76.7 million. Nigeria’s total population amounts to 206 million and the internet penetration is at about 46 per cent.

The NCC stated that the larger percentage of the service provisions are available in Lagos and Abuja because the population in those places are high and the demand for broadband services is also high. It, however, encouraged licensees to spread their services to other locations in the country to boost the Federal Government initiative of a robust and pervasive broadband. According to the agency, the government has been making efforts towards robust and pervasive broadband to aid economic growth across the country. The agency noted that the rural area penetration is still low despite the potentials in the areas, encouraging the licensees to increase their penetrate of the rural areas across the country.

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