In the face of rising global inflation, the cost of fixed broadband internet in a third world nation like Nigeria has become more expensive. Despite President Muhammadu Buhari reversing the proposed 5% tax on telecom services, telecom operators in Nigeria have proceeded to increase the cost of data plans.
Furthermore, Surfshark, a cybersecurity company based in the Netherlands, ranked Nigeria 114 out of 117 countries or 92% of the global population, in terms of internet affordability. Nigeria is slightly behind Ivory Coast and Uganda whose data is the most expensive on the African continent.
State of play
On the premise of Surfshark’s report, Nigerians need to work 15 minutes each month to pay for the most affordable 1GB package, which costs Israeli citizens just five seconds per month.
- Also, Nigeria’s fixed broadband internet cost citizens about 36 hours, 13 minutes per month, with minimum wage being N30,000 (April 2019).
- However, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed an increase in broadband penetration in the country from 40.01 percent (76,365,158) in August 2022 to 45.65 percent (85,232,291).
African scope
Comparing the nation’s internet speed to other African countries, Nigeria’s mobile internet is two times slower and broadband is three times slower. But compared to Kenya, Nigeria’s mobile internet is five times faster, while broadband is about the same speed.
What you should know
Regardless of how expensive Nigeria’s data is, the country’s internet quality measured by speed, stability, and growth, ranked 99th on a global scale while also being 26 percent worse than the global average.
Nigeria’s broadband internet connection users currently stands at 84.6 million (August, 2022). This also brings the broadband penetration in Africa’s most populous nation to 44.32% (August, 2022). And a milestone achieved in implementing the National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020-2025), a plan to bring 4G broadband penetration to 70% by 2025.