Mobile telephony and literacy potentials
Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a mobile internet revolution. There are predictions that the use of mobile internet is expected to double to 147,000 terabyte in 2015 from 76,000 terabyte as at June 2014.
A combination of content e.g. social media, content-rich apps and videos, and cheaper smartphones is driving this growth. Mobile penetration in SSA, currently 70 percent, is catching up with the global penetration rate, 92 percent.
As a result the number of smartphones will swell to 557 million with 3G technology being the dominant form of mobile connection by 2017 while mobile subscriptions are projected to rise to 930 million by the end of 2019.
Users connecting to the internet via smartphones range from teenagers watching music videos in the cities to farmers transferring money with mobile wallets. Nigerians increasingly access TV and media services with their smartphones.
Agriculture, education, government, financial services, health and retail have been identified as sectors that will benefit from technology-related productivity gains. McKinsey Global Institute reckons there could be as much as $300 billion in productivity gains in Africa thanks to the internet. In education, the productivity gains are estimated to reach $30 billion to almost $70 billion.
Mobile devices are unlocking literacy potentials in developing countries, according to UNESCO. The UN agency asserts that mobile reading is a phenomenon that is happening with the potential to open educational opportunities.
Nigerians (especially women, who read longer), in the absence of paper books, are embracing the cheaper electronic alternative spending hundreds of hours reading books on feature and Android phones. Innovative online reading platforms like biNu and Worldreader are making books accessible and affordable.
In a McKinsey survey, the largest first of its kind, 90 percent of 5,000 respondents from Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe intended to engage in mobile reading in the future; spending more time reading on their mobile phones in the next year.
Lack of relevant local content rather than the cost or use of airtime was the number one barrier to adopting mobile readers (60 percent of respondents cited lack of content as the primary barrier to mobile reading. Only 18 percent noted concerns around cost, while half claimed they never worry about cost).
Illiteracy is connected to the lack of sufficient books adequately priced for low-income economies like Nigeria. A veritable opportunity for Nigerian technology companies since Nigeria has the population and the ubiquity of mobile devices can provide the economies of scale.
Given the poor quality of education in Nigeria, the data revolution should be viewed as an opportunity for innovations that turn mobile devices into classrooms. This will require overcoming infrastructure problems such as better networks and service delivery. Private consumption and investment are already the main drivers of internet consumption. Proper implementation of Nigeria’s broadband policy could further boost innovations.