Afrigather In line with DataPortal’s Digital 2023: South Africa report, greater than 1 / 4 of the nation’s inhabitants nonetheless doesn’t have entry to the web.
At first of 2023, South Africa had 43.48 million web customers, an web penetration price of 72%. Social media customers stood at 25.80 million individuals, roughly 42.9% of the entire inhabitants which stood at 60 million.
The variety of web customers within the nation elevated by 357,000 (0.8% %) in comparison with the identical interval in 2022.
On the subject of pace, the median cellular web connection pace by way of mobile networks was 36.70 Mbps. For fastened connections, the median pace was 40.12 Mbps.
In comparison with 2022, the information reveals that the median cellular web connection pace within the nation elevated by 6.18 Mbps (20%), whereas the fastened web connection speeds elevated by 10.39 Mbps (35%).
Elsewhere in southern Africa
In Namibia, web penetration stood at 53%, translating to 1.37 million web customers. This is a rise of 1.4% from 2022. Nevertheless, web speeds noticed a decline, with cellular connection speeds reducing by 8.5% to 18.30 Mbps and stuck connection speeds dropping by 9.3% to eight.28 Mbps.
Zambia’s web penetration stood at 21%, a complete of 4.3 million web customers. Web customers within the nation elevated by 115,000, a 3% enhance between 2022 and 2023.
Web speeds within the nation elevated fairly considerably, with cellular web connection speeds in Zambia rising by 25% and stuck web connection speeds rising by 86%.
As of January 2023, Zimbabwe had 5.74 million web customers, an web penetration price of 35%. This represents a rise of 117,000 customers (2%).
Web speeds, alternatively, mirrored combined fortunes. Cell web connection pace within the nation decreased by 1.69 Mbps (13%) whereas fastened web connection speeds elevated by 2.14 Mbps (34%).
Though the figures confirmed an enchancment in penetration charges in many of the nations within the area, there stays a lot work to be executed to convey nearly all of the populations into the digital financial system.
With a lot concern across the problem of closing the digital divide gap fostered by inequality in entry to the web nonetheless round, it stays very important for digital inclusion insurance policies to be applied to speed up web penetration within the area.
