Will Uganda’s Internet Penetration Ever Come Close to Kenya’s?

This is the question that many people in Uganda are currently asking. After all, the two countries may be neighbours and share a number of similarities, but there is still a considerable gulf between the levels of internet penetration.

According to figures released in January 2021, from a population of 46 million there were around 12 million regular internet users, or about 26% of Ugandans. In Kenya, the population is 54 million with around 22 million internet users, which equates to around 41% of people. So, itʼs obvious that there is some catching up to do for Uganda.

Both countries have approximately the same split between urban and rural dwellers – for Uganda, the ratio is 25.2%/74.8% while in Kenya, the corresponding figures

This means that geographic considerations shouldnʼt really affect Ugandaʼs progression.
Indeed, there has been considerable progress over the last few years, including a very impressive 14% rise over the twelve months following January 2020.

Some of this has been put down to the increasing numbers of smartphones now owned by the population. Multiple phone ownership clouds the figures slightly as there are over 59 million connections in the country for the 46 million population. However, that this is a near 6% increase from 2020 to 2021 probably tells us all that we need to know.

Like much of the rest of the world, as more and more people choose to use smartphones as their first choice method of going online, an increased number of the devices in circulation will mean ever greater internet penetration. Also contributing to this is the declining cost of the handsets themselves, making them accessible to more and more Ugandans.

In tandem with this, there is ever-more content becoming available online, creating extra incentives for people

to seek ways to connect with the internet. This ranges from businesses that are now selling online to the sort of entertainment that is now defining the new media age.

Particularly important are streaming services and online casinos that cater to Ugandansʼ love of playing games. This is why we have seen a real influx of free bonus no deposit casino offers appearing, illustrating how competitive this industry has become whereby different platforms offer various promotions to try and attract customers. In fact, there are so many now available that there are several websites that bring all these offers together to allow people to compare them before making their choice.

Source: chimpreports.com