A research into the lifestyle of connected Nigerians which was started last year May, and conducted by ‘Gbenga Sesan has now been made public. The research seek to understand the pattern, growth and how Nigerian use the internet.

The Findings

The survey revealed that internet usage is most popular among young people aged 20 to 24. There is a 2:1 ratio when you compare the number of men and women online, and 6:1 when the comparison is between single and married people (divorced, widowed and others make up only 1%). Majority of respondents (41%) have completed either secondary school (equivalent of high school) education or a bachelors program (32%) while 36% quoted an income range of less than one million naira (about $6,600) per annum. Only 1 of every 5 responded to say that they do not own computers while 35% claim to have only one computer and 36% have one laptop computer alongside their desktop computer. More people seem to gain access from cybercafés and their workplace (55% combined) while only 17% have access at home.

Key Highlights:

• 80% if the respondents users Yahoo! mail.
• 36% uses Gmail.
• Almost half of the respondents subscribe to an access plan that allows them to stay online all day long.
• 1 in every 2 internet users own generators that allow them to stay online
• About a quarter of the respondent are unemployed. (Please note that majority of the respondents (41%) are high school graduates)
• 42% claim to have suffered bodily harm due to the length of time spent online at one time, with various symptoms such as back ache, wrist pain, etc.
• Two in every three respondents stated that internet access has had an impact on their career/job
• 1 in every 3 agree that their tendency to stay online has made them
  replace social contacts with online communication.
• Half of the respondents have completed online transactions but only 4% have fallen victims of any form of cybercrime.
• 80% of the respondents have either a laptop a desktop computer.
• 28% uses cybercafe to gain access while 27% gain access from work.
• a whopping 57% spends between 1-5 hours online daily.
• 89% of respondents uses Facebook
• 21% uses MySpace while 20% uses LinkedIn
• 41% updates their Social network status once in a while,  only 11% updates always.

Analyst View

First off, the research is based on Nigerians living in the cities,  it’s evident is the findings, where over 60% earn more than 1 million Naira per annum hand .  A good number of the respondent have both laptop and a desktop computer.

It’s no surprise that about 80% uses Yahoo mail. Gmail has not gained as much popularity has yahoo mail. Also looking at the internet subscription pattern, it favours users to have an “always on” plan because you cannot guarantee when you will have light. So having a daytime plan with no light will be a waste of time and money.

On the other hand, majority of the people get connected by having their generators on, yeah! This point out that, they are either into internet business or using the generator for other businesses while only browsing because the light is on.

Majority of the respondent are between the ages of 20-24, so this is key to the result pointing to the unemployment rate among the respondents.

For Cybercrime, majority of the cybercriminials target foreign people hence the low focus on Nigerians. The low level of ecommerce also is a pointer to the reduction in the cybercrime committed against Nigerians. Some of the prevailing cybercrimes are ATMs fraud, phishing and Identity theft. We have covered couple of the crime on this site.

The impact of the internet cannot be overemphazied as it has had great impact on people’s career and jobs.  More than 70% said it has impacted their careers.

The rise and rise of Facebook is a pointer to the social media adoption of Nigerian internet audience. Nigerians on Facebook recently crossed 1 million mark. About 57% spends between 1-5hours online while only 4% always update their social media status (what’s happening given the percentage of social media usage).

48% of the respondents have completed financial transaction online, wow! It’s a pointer that people are interested in ecommerce but more services are needed locally to spur the growth. Going by the respondents income level, I want to believe that most of the transactions are done in US dollars and on foreign sites (capital flight is still apparent here).

All these point to the fact that the need for local content is urgently needed as no local site have a presence in the research report. e-payment is the soul of e-commerce, the growth is still not fast enough as trust level is still very low locally. Technopreneurs coming to the Barcamp Nigeria should be thinking about these!

Our in-house research on “Emerging trends in Nigerian Internet Market” for 1st quarter of 2010 will be out in April.

Have you read the report? Click here to download it. What is your view about it?

Photo credit: Microsoft.