Opera, a multi-platform web browser is betting big on Africa’s rapid population growth rate, the rollout of 4G infrastructure, and smartphones adoption on the continent estimated to be explosive in the coming decades.
A United Nations’ report has stated that 60 percent of the region’s population is aged less than 25 years, a demographic which will shape the future of Africa and will come online at a record pace.
Telecommunication companies are transforming and accelerating the investment into infrastructure and 4G rollout, making data cheaper for consumers.
Furthermore, the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) has reported that smartphone adoption is growing rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa reaching 50 percent of total connection in 2020. This is due to the availability of more affordable smartphones and popular smartphone financing models.
In Nigeria, for example, SLOT one of the oldest and biggest offline retailer of smartphone and all types of gadgets in Nigeria with over 60 stores spread across 18 states in the country has introduced flexible smartphone purchase credit facilities for customers.
SLOT offers 3 & 6 months repayment plans for smartphones, accessories, laptops, and other gadgets and electronics.
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“We are continuing to optimise our products to offer our loyal users more reasons to use Opera. Users across many African countries can download and stream music in our Free Music channel while sharing the same content using our own file sharing feature,” Jørgen Arnesen, EVP of Mobile Browsers at Opera said. Opera has also made it easier for users to monitor their data usage via the Data Savings module on the home page.
Looking at these fundamental factors, the company believes Africa has a bright future – which is why Opera has adopted its Africa First strategy.
This means “our mobile products and services are developed first and foremost with the African consumer in mind. This means we invest in the region to bring more people online and offer them the fastest and most reliable internet connection,” Arnesen explained.
Africa First also entails partnering with local, regional and global leading companies to ensure the best online experience for users. It means employing brilliant Africans across key cities like Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Cape Town who fill key functions such as business and product development, marketing, operations and editorial representatives.
Africa is a key focus for Opera. The region is the fastest-growing continent in terms of internet penetration. Recent reports from GSMA show that only 300 million out of the total population of 1.20 billion people are connected to the internet in sub-Saharan Africa which means less than 1 in 3 people are online today.
Opera News was launched under the Africa First strategy two years ago. Today, it is the leading news and content app in Africa, with 25 million monthly active users as of Q3-2020, while the Opera News AI service is used by nearly 80 million users every month in the region.
Opera News Hub launched in Nigeria a year ago and today the platform publishes more than 10 thousand news articles on a daily basis in Africa. Another great example of a product incubated by the Africa First strategy is Olist. It features classifieds business in Nigeria launched in August 2019. Today, Olist is the second biggest classifieds business in the country, with approximately 6 million monthly active users.
This year in Nigeria the Opera for Business was also launched in partnership with Google My Business to help local businesses come online and be discoverable by anyone at any time from any mobile device.
Among the key initiatives tied to our Africa First strategy this year are the partnerships formed with the leading telcos across sub-Saharan Africa to provide people with free browsing in the Opera Mini browser.
