Access to Internet through Mobile Devices Tops List in 2017 Mobile Report
Emma Okonji
Jumia at the weekend in Lagos, released its Annual Mobile Report, highlighting the 2017 main industry trends, ahead of this year’s Mobile Week, where the use of mobile devices in accessing the internet for online shopping, was ranked highest, compared with the use of laptop and desktop computers.
According to the report, there was 11 per cent increase in the number of Nigerians who visited the Jumia website via their mobile phones, which reached 79 per cent in 2017, compared with the 71 per cent record in 2016.
Meanwhile, those who used their desktop computers or laptops dipped to 18 per cent in 2017 compared with the 29 per cent record in 2016.
The report also shows that in 2017, 70 per cent of Nigerians preferred the cash on delivery option, compared to 28 per cent and 12 per cent for credit/debit cards and mobile money options respectively.
Analysing the figures of the Mobile Report, the CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Juliet Anammah, described the upward shift from desktop to mobile as a positive development. She attributed the increase in the number of mobile phone users to the multiplicity of affordable smartphones, especially the Asian mobile brands which continue to build on their Africa-specific strategy by introducing lower price points’ smartphones adapted to the profiles of African users. She also listed a growing market for second-hand devices and the increasing use of social media sites as contributing factors.
Anammah further said: “The mobile industry continues to play an increasingly important role in the socio-economic development of the African region. As Nigeria swiftly becomes a mobile first country, with mobile phone penetration currently at 84 per cent of the population, Jumia is doing its bit to close the gap with sales initiatives such as Jumia Mobile Week.”
This year, the stage is set once again for the biggest sale of mobile phones, beginning March 19th through 25th. This is a mobile-phone-only one-week-long sales event dedicated to opening up our customers to a wide range of mobile devices at half the normal prices. “We believe that, by end of 2018, at least every Nigerian will have access to a mobile phone,” Anammah added.
The Chief Transformation Officer of MTN Nigeria, Olubayo Adekambi, identified the expansion of e-Commerce into a dual business model that blends the physical and the digital to create an ecosystem between brands and consumers across the two worlds, as among the major factors fueling the increase in adoption of smartphones.
In order to ensure rural dwellers have increased access to ICT devices such as smartphones, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has created an IT Innovation hub, which has the capacity to produce e-literate groups from low skilled or low paid workers, unemployed people, and those with disabilities who do not have access to these ICTs.
Director General of NITDA, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami who was represented at the launch of the Mobile Industry Report by the Head, NITDA South-west, Chioma Okee-Aguguo, said: “NITDA has seen in ICT the potential to change new and old forms of economic activity. We’ve created e-Learning Centres to further enrich the rural communities’ quest for learning and for continuous after-school reading and learning by both the students and teachers, among other initiatives.”