A third (33%) of the population in the Africa region (excluding the Arab states of the continent) uses the Internet, according to the 2021 report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on digital connectivity in the world. If between 2019 and 2021 Internet use increased by 23% in this part of the world, this part of the world is where access to the web remains difficult – especially for women and people living in rural areas. –, but also the most expensive. Five facts to understand the digital divide in Africa.
A divide between urban and rural areas
Half of African city dwellers are online compared to only 15% of the rural population. Globally, people in urban areas are twice as likely to use the Internet as those in rural areas. The phenomenon is particularly important in Africa because where connectivity is almost universal, the gap between city and countryside has almost disappeared.
Uneven mobile network coverage
18% of the African population have no mobile network coverage compared to 5% globally. Likewise, 11% of Africans only have 2G coverage. In other words, almost 30% of the rural population cannot access the Internet. However, this coverage gap is comparable to that observed in the Americas where 22% of the rural population is not covered at all and 4% is only covered by 2G.
In addition, subscriptions to mobile cellular services decreased in 2021 on the continent, after increasing in 2020, unlike mobile broadband subscriptions which, for their part, are up 6.7%, making the Africa region the one that has experienced the strongest growth in this area over the past three years. 4G coverage also jumped 21% between 2020 and 2021
Low flow rates and high cost
The African continent is the region of the world where international bandwidth – transmission rate from one country to the rest of the world – is the weakest. An African Internet user uses just over 50 kbits, or about seven times less than his alter ego living in Europe (340 kbits / user).
A fixed internet connection represents 18.6% of gross national income (GNI) per capita against a world average of 2.8%. In Europe, where this connection is the cheapest, it only represents 1.3% of GNI per capita. Mobile connection is less expensive since it only represents 4.4% of GNI per capita. However, this figure remains four times higher than the world average, which is 1.2% of GNI per capita.
Women on the Internet
On the continent, 24% of women use the Internet compared to 35% of men. By way of comparison, these rates are respectively 83% and 87% in Europe. While the digital gap between men and women seems to be narrowing all over the world, the trend is reversed on the continent. However, a recent study by the International Finance Corporation shows, for example, that a greater presence of women in the electronic commerce sector would be beneficial to the growth of African countries.
But an increasingly connected youth
Globally, 71% of young people (15-24 years old) have access to the Internet compared to 57% in other age groups. Young people are therefore 1.24 times more likely to connect than the rest of the population. This ratio is slightly higher in Africa where it is 1.47: 40% of young people are online against 27% for the rest of the population. These figures bode well for the development of the Internet on a continent where the majority of inhabitants are under 20 years old.