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South Africa leads adult smartphone use on the continent
Of the 40 countries sampled for the research, South Africa places 24th on the list with a smartphone penetration of 37%, another 52% of South Africans used ‘ordinary’ phones whiles 10% said they did not use phones at all.
Even though the global median for smartphone penetration stands at 43%, in Africa less than one in five people use a smartphone.
The smartphone digital divide is clear, with a difference of 84 percentage points between the country with the most smartphone owners, South Korea, and the country with the least – Ethiopia at 4%.
Following South Africa is Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, who ranked 27th, followed by Kenya (29th), Ghana (33rd), Senegal (34th), Burkina Faso (36th), Tanzania (37th), Uganda (39th) and Ethiopia (40th) the last according to the research.
The research was based on a survey of 40 countries in 2015, the results noted however that there was still a significant gap between developed and developing countries, even though the gap is closing rapidly.
