A recent report by the World Bank says that less than 20 per cent of households in Nigeria and other African countries own a computer.
In the 177-page report titled ‘Digital Progress and Trends Report’, the World Bank shed light on the digital divide between low and high-income countries and its impact on the economy, business and income.
The report stated that the cost of broadband subscriptions across high and middle-income countries has been stable since 2020 but has risen significantly in low-income countries.
For example, in low-income countries, the median price of a fixed broadband plan was 50 per cent higher than in high-income countries as of 2022.
Furthermore, the report alluded to the rising cost of smartphones as a barrier to bridging the digital divide across geographical populations and income groups.
Among the lowest income groups, the cheapest smartphones cost around 14 per cent of their annual income for persons under $2 per day. This results in 49 per cent of smartphone ownership in low-income countries compared to 95 per cent in high-income countries.
“In contrast, fewer than 20 per cent of households in the Kyrgyz Republic, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, and Nigeria owned a computer. Computer ownership is higher in other lower-income countries, although it is heavily skewed toward urban households, as in Angola, Bhutan, or Niger”.
In the meantime, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), quoting figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said Internet subscriptions in Nigeria rose by 5.81 per cent to 163.8 million year-on-year between 2022 and 2023.
