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Africa’s Internet Penetration Rate

The Internet was born around the 1960s and has since had a major impact on economic growth.

Now, it feels natural to have the Internet, and I cannot imagine life without it. Most jobs rely strongly on the Internet.

The Internet feels natural for people in developed countries such as Japan and America, but how popular is it in developing countries where necessary infrastructure is not available?

What is the internet penetration rate in the Africa ​​region where there are, in particular, many developing countries?

20% to 30% in developing countries

At present, the internet penetration rate in the more developed countries of Africa, such as South Africa, is about 90% or more of all people.

However, in developing countries, the level is quite low, at around 20-30%.

However, Africa is a region that is experiencing rapid growth, and the gap in internet penetration rates will be reduced by globalization, so it is expected that the internet will rapidly spread and penetration rates will even out in the future.

Kenya is No. 1 in Africa for internet speeds

In addition, in the rankings of internet speeds of countries from around the world as ranked by Akamai, Kenya was ranked 23rd overall and 1st in Africa. For some context, Japan is ranked 8th and Korea is 1st.

 

The “Internet” has brought many benefits to the African region.

Even in countries where do not have basic infrastructure such as electricity, since people become able to access the internet, it lead phones to be spreaded all over countries. Based on many histories,  the first step to develop countries is make infrastructure ready.

However, Africa skipped the process of developing and now, they grew incredibly fast. Now I will introduce a few important benefits that the internet brought.

What the Internet Brings to Africa

Here we will introduce what benefits the Internet has brought to Africa.

Medical

In Africa, infections such as Ebola fever have become serious problems.

Until recently, Africans who have had no way of getting the right knowledge and treatments can now easily get these from their mobile phone.

Education

There are not many schools in Africa for its population, so there are many children who cannot attend school. However, ‘e-learning’ has become widespread with the internet, and an environment in which students can study without having to go to school is being created.

‘E-learning’ is a tool that allows individuals to take courses and study over the Internet. A lot of ‘e-learning’ services have appeared in recent years in Japan too.

Payment

In terms of technology, it can be said that it has greatly contributed to society moving towards being cashless.

Originally, banks were not widely used in Africa, but with the spread of the internet and mobile phones, there has been rapid growth in technology, with many countries having online money transfer rates exceeding 90% of overall cash transfers.

If we consider about Japan that we do not have cashless culture like other countries do,  now we can understand that their growth of in technology is incredible.

Developing countries can innovate on the Internet

The internet is steadily spreading in countries that are still considered to be developing.

Japan is behind of many things such as cashless culture. Based on that, the internet brought such a huge thing to Africa.

You probably didn’t think that in Africa there was a high penetration rate of the internet and that there were some aspects of technology that are more advanced than in Japan and America. But in reality, these are both true.

In the near future, there may be a time when countries called ‘developing countries’ now, such as many countries in Africa, will outpace the current developed countries through technological innovation made possible by the spread of the internet.