A new ranking report from the Internet World Stats (IWS) has now revealed that Kenya recorded the highest internet penetration rate in Africa in 2020. According to the stats, 87.2% of the country’s population is connected to the internet.

This was reiterated by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) who see figures indicate that the country recorded 43.45 million internet/data subscriptions in the first quarter of 20/21 financial year. This accounted for a 4.8% increase from the previous quarter.

According to the CA, this growth is mainly associated with the internet connectivity demand necessitated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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“As at the end of the first quarter of 2020/21 financial year, the Internet/data market experienced positive growth with rising dependence on digital platforms for work, learning, healthcare, shopping and entertainment,” said CA.

CA went further to project that the uptake of internet usage in Kenya will continue to evolve rapidly with increasing innovation in tech. This is alongside the availability of more affordable personal gadgets as well as enhanced connectivity across the country.

The IWS ranking shows Libya following in second place in 2020 with 74.2% with Seychelles at third position with 72.5% penetration. In terms of the total number of internet users, Nigeria remained on top with over 126 million users. However, her internet penetration rate stood at 61.2%.

Regionally, internet penetration rate stood at 46.2% for Rwanda,  40.4% for Uganda,  38.7% for Tanzania, 17.8% for Ethiopia,10.7% for Somalia and 9.7% for Burundi.

Western Sahara stood at last place with the lowest rate of 4.7%.

The entire continent of Africa, with an estimated population of 1.3 billion people, registered a penetration rate of 47.1%, according to IWS.