New report highlights the growing relationship Nigerians have with smartphones

folarin okunola

July 13, 2016 4:04 PM

Per the MEF study, 73% of the respondents chose messaging apps over SMS because they are perceived to be free or cheaper.

MEF Logo

Collating data and gathering information on anything has not been very big in Africa. Institutions, governments, and stakeholders in various industries have always found it hard to get consumer-focused data in Africa, Nigeria in particular.

Thankfully, various institutions are now taking the ball into their courts and conducting studies and gathering information by themselves. The Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) is one of those organizations and its latest study has some very interesting numbers.

Per the MEF study, 73% of the respondents chose messaging apps over SMS because they are perceived to be free or cheaper. At the same time, a significant percentage (29%) value the extra functionality provided by these services, with WhatsApp (73%) dominating chat apps in Nigeria.

The research also reveals future opportunities outside of apps and entertainment. Mobile Learning (48%) and reading apps (34%) both perform well in Nigeria.

The study also shows that healthcare is found to have the highest future potential according to the mobile media users studied (34%) alongside localised services such as taxi apps (33%) and food delivery (32%).

ALSO READ: MEF Connects Nigeria to hold at tech event

“The growth of the mobile ecosystem from more established areas like entertainment and messaging to the uptake of health, reading, transport and foods apps, along with the uptake of mCommerce and banking is encouraging and demonstrates the continued rise of the mobile economy in Nigeria,” said Rimma Perelmuter, MEF’s CEO.

“While the report shows strong growth in data consumption with 34% purchasing additional data, it also highlights that nearly three quarters of respondents (73%) are still held back from downloading popular services such as video & using more apps due to a lack of trust.

“In order for the mobile opportunity to truly take off, not only do the networks need to continue to improve their service, but data and pricing models need to be more affordable, transparent and better understood. This study shows that where this is the case, consumers are more willing to pay for content and services as long as the value is clear.”

“The diversity in consumers’ usage is encouraging but a key enabler that drives usage is the use case," said Adia Sowho, Director, Digital Business at Etisalat, according to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek.

The report also points out some challenges facing the Nigerian market. Trust is still a big issue with 44% seeing it as preventing them from doing more with their phone and bandwidth issues or cost of data (47%) also seem to be holding the market back.

folarin okunola