COVID- 19 spikes app downloads as Nigeria leads Africa by 43%

Anew report from Appsflyer in collaboration with Google, which tracked mobile app activities across three of Africa's largest app markets ( Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa) between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, showed that the African mobile app industry ( which is predominantly Android) increased by 41 per cent in overall installations.

The report shared insights into how the African app market has fared since the pandemic broke out last year, showing that in the continent, Nigeria registered the highest growth, with a 43 per cent rise; South Africa's market increased by 37 per cent and Kenya increased 29 per cent.

According to the report, from the first half of 2020 to the first half of 2021, the African mobile app industr y increased by 41 per cent in overall installs. This was analyzed from 6,000 apps and two billion installs in the three markets.

The report recalled that on March 22, 2020, Rwanda imposed Africa's first lockdown. Subsequently, other countries followed; Keny a ( March 25), South Africa ( March 27), and Nigeria ( March 30).

It noted that as more people spent time at home from Q2 2020, app installs increased by 20 per cent across the three countries. South Africans were the quickest to take to their phones as the lockdowns hit with installs increasing by 17 per cent from the previous quarter.