4.3 million
Available report from the global 2011 Facebook usage report of the World Internet Status, Nigeria ranked third position in terms of the number of Facebook users in the African continent. Coming ahead of Nigeria according to the report,  were  Egypt and South Africa with 9.4 million and 4.8 million users respectively.

Unprecedented growth
According to the report, social media has continued to assume unprecendented growth, with Facebook leading the pack with 799 million subscribers at end of 2011, with the networking sites allowing people across the world to share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts.

This is according to a study done by Daily Trust, who also discovered that subscriber numbers have risen from 400 000 in 2001 to almost 100 million in 2011 – a figure that represents roughly 53.3% of the population. That leaves 73 million Nigerians (46.7%) without any means of technological communication.

“Indeed, as telecoms services have expanded in the last 10 years, so did the level of service uptake by Nigerians, especially where operators have been able to roll out service.

The remaining addressable market is in the rural areas and we urge the operators to expand services to these rural dwellers,” said Chairman of the Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo.

“The remaining 73 million represents a huge market opportunity to be tapped into by the telecoms companies by channelling their infrastructure investment to the rural areas where basic telephony/voice service still remains a yearning demand by the rural dwellers,” The Daily Trust wrote.

The research, carried out by Standard Bank Group, states that by the end of 2010, there were over 500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa, and this is forecast to rise to nearly 800 million by 2015. However, growth rates over the five years from 2010 to 2015 are expected to be far less than those of the first decade of the 21st century when the subscriber base rose from 15 million in 2000 to 500 million ten years later.

Such statistics reveal the rate at which the African continent is rapidly embracing technology particularly in the telecoms sector. Indeed, Nigeria already has the 10th largest mobile phone market in the world (in terms of mobile phone users). The report also predicts some of the highest growth rates in the world in terms of mobile phone users for countries in East and Central Africa. Particularly high rates are expected to occur in countries such as Uganda, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana, and are expected to help drive economic growth in the region.

Internet usage in the continent is also forecaset to grow rapidly in the coming years. Between 2000 and 2011, internet usage increased in Africa by over 2000% compared to a global average of 480% and rates are expected to continue rising as internet pentration in the African continent increases.

Dasuba.com is a completely FREE SMS service
Dasuba.com is a completely free service requiring no ongoing contracts. After completing the quick and easy registration process, users can search their African contact’s phone number to check if they are subscribed to one of the participating networks. They can then add the number to their Dasuba.com contact list and send free text messages to that contact from Dasuba.com.

NO expensive international SMS fees
The recipient of a Dasuba.com message in Africa can simply reply to the message from their mobile phone via a local phone number, meaning they do not incur expensive international SMS fees.

Their message is delivered to the original sender’s email inbox, who can then continue the correspondence directly from their email account.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Zain Nigeria was founded as Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN) in 2001, named after the South African holding company Econet Wireless International (EWI) which held a 5% stake and a contract to run the cellco. Following a takeover attempt by Vodacom of South Africa in 2003, a protracted boardroom dispute ensued, with EWI unwilling to relinquish its stake or its management control. Eventually in 2004 EWN was renamed Vee Networks and its brand name changed to Vodacom. Barely six weeks after taking over the cellco, Vodacom pulled out of its contract and walked away from Vee Networks, citing ‘irregularities’ in the payment of the brokerage fees. Management of the company was handed to Dr Gamaliel Onosode, of the Delta State Ministry of Finance, and services were rebranded again, this time under the V-Mobile banner. Celtel International, a division of Zain, purchased 65% of the company in May 2006. EWI has since surfaced to try and gain a court ruling to overturn the sale to Celtel, claiming its pre-emption rights were breached when its predominantly Nigerian partners decided to sell their shares in V-Mobile to Zain in 2006.

Source: TeleGeography

Strive Masiyiwa

As founder and chief executive of Econet Wireless he has pursued his ambition of creating a truly African multinational business, spinning a web that spans seven countries, more than 25 million customers and generates an estimated $3bn (£1.8bn) in annual revenues. He has fought his way through Africa’s often tangled legal jungle and had the security forces on his tail – more often than not sitting outside his house.

Next week his legal team will enter a courtroom in the Netherlands to mount the next challenge: throwing a spanner in the works of what could potentially be one of the biggest deals in African history, the $10bn sale of rival mobile-phone operation Zain.

Read the rest on the Guardian website…

Source: Guardian