An Internet Society report has highlighted that Nigeria’s Internet penetration is lagging, with only the 36% of its 213 million citizens using the Internet, ranking it 18th in Africa.
To increase this percentage and reap the benefits of the Internet, including a highly connected economy, Nigeria must address market-related challenges.
The report revealed the number of companies that provide local access to the Internet, known as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and companies that connect an ISP to the global Internet, known as Internet transit providers, servicing Nigeria is well below average compared to global standards.
According to the Internet Society’s Distinguished Technologist, Michuki Mwangi, this observation points to local barriers that make it difficult to provide resilient and affordable Internet connectivity.
“Nigeria can improve resilience and usage of its Internet by reviewing its telecoms-related policies, regulations, and other factors that discourage service providers from investing in Internet infrastructure that will facilitate better connectivity,” says Mwangi.
“Our Pulse Internet Resilience Index highlights that more efforts are needed to improve the infrastructure, performance, security, and market readiness.
“Improving these areas can have flow-on effects such as decreasing interconnectivity costs, improving performance, and increasing affordability.”
Mwangi also notes that the country needs to increase its use of IPv6 to accommodate the future growth of the Internet—something that many populous countries are doing as more of their population starts to use the Internet.
According to the Pulse Country Report, Nigeria’s 1% IPv6 adoption rate ranks 18th in Africa and is the lowest among the top 10 most populous countries worldwide.
IPv6 is the next-generation Internet Protocol (IP) standard intended to replace IPv4, the protocol many Internet services still use today.
It is a well-established protocol that is seeing increased deployment and adoption, particularly in mobile phone markets, as it enables networks to connect more devices and expand their networks without relying on additional resources.
Mobile devices generate more than 84% of Internet traffic in Nigeria. The Internet Society Pulse Country Report highlights governments, technology stakeholders, and industry players need to work together to prioritize competition and open the market to increase Internet resilience.
About Internet Society Pulse: Launched in December 2020, Internet Society Pulse consolidates trusted third-party Internet measurement data from various sources into a single platform.
We use the data presented here to examine Internet trends and tell data-driven stories so that policymakers, researchers, journalists, network operators, civil society groups and others can better understand the health, availability and evolution of the Internet.