The pitfalls in Kenya’s high internet penetration

Far too few Kenyans can access fixed broadband internet, which is vital for growing an innovation economy

Kenya’s high Internet usage does not necessarily mean the country is the best placed in Africa to capitalise on the Internet, a Nation Newsplex analysis shows.

With seven out of 10 Kenyans using the Internet, the country has the best penetration in Africa according to data monitored by the aggregation website InternetWorldStats.org.

On the surface, this 70 per cent penetration rate places Kenya at par with Russia and ahead of high and middle-income countries such as Italy (62 per cent), Portugal (68), Greece (63), Turkey (60), Vatican City (57), China (52) and Poland (68).

Fixed broadband is far better than mobile broadband for applications which are vital for growing an innovation economy

The reality, however, is that many of these countries boast better Internet speeds than Kenya does, and given their larger populations, have opened up Internet access to far more people in absolute terms.

Kenya has 0.2 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people, which is far behind 12 for Turkey, 18 for Russia and 24 for Italy, according to 2014 World Bank figures. Kenya is also far from the best in Africa, ranking at 28th. Africa also lags behind the rest of the world in its use of fixed broadband Internet, provided by fibre optic cables. 

This is important because fixed broadband is far better than mobile broadband for applications which are vital for growing an innovation economy such as streaming, video conferencing, cloud computing and large file downloads.

READ: WALUBENGO: Why isn't Internet in Kenya affordable?

In Kenya, there were about 111,130 fixed wired broadband connections to homes and offices in 2015, according to the latest Economic Survey. In 2014, according to the International Telecommunications Union, the cost of fixed broadband in Kenya was 35.3 per cent of Gross National Income per capita, while it was only two per cent in South Africa, highlighting a significant difference in affordability.

Only Africa and Asia have their share of Internet users being lower than their share of the world population

While 31.8 million new users accessed the Internet in Kenya from 2000 to June of 2016, 92.5 million people accessed the Internet in Nigeria. Yet both countries had 200,000 users in the year 2,000.

Over the same time, China has added 698 million Internet users. Both these countries have significantly larger populations and economies than Kenya.

SIM CARDS

The Economic Survey 2016 and the Communication Commission of Kenya credit the huge growth in Internet use on affordable mobile phones in the market, cheaper Internet bundles offered by mobile operators, and improved connectivity from fibre optic cables.

Kenyans on the Internet have increased 159 times, from 200,000 in the year 2000 to about 32 million in June 2016.

One also needs to be clear on whether penetration rate refers to the number of mobile phone users or the number of connections (i.e.) SIM cards, as GMSA has cautioned. One person may own two or more connections, which may not give a true picture of mobile penetration.