Benin leads Lagos, others in smartphone penetration

Benin City, Lagos, Kaduna, Ilorin, and Onitsha have been identified as cities with the highest smartphone penetration in Nigeria.

This is contained in a recent report on smartphone and application penetration study for Q4, 2022 released by the Orange Business Intelligence Technology team (ORBIT), the research and tech unit of the Orange Group Nigeria.

According to the report, Benin City tops with 79 percent penetration, closely followed by Lagos and Kaduna with 78 percent smartphone penetration each. The cities of Ilorin and Onitsha follow with 77 percent and 74 percent respectively.

The report reveals that Transsion Holdings leads smartphone device penetration in Nigeria with its brands Tecno and Infinix leading the pack with 29 percent and 26 percent respectively.

The iPhone follows in 3rd place with 14 percent penetration while Samsung takes 4th place at 10 percent.

Itel settles comfortably at seven percent placing Translesion’s chokehold on the Nigerian smartphone market at 62 percent

However, US-owned Meta’s messaging apps dominate Nigeria’s messaging with freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service. WhatsApp held a 96 percent lead, closely followed by Meta’s Messenger with a 32 percent penetration.

Telegram pops up in the top three at 12 percent, similar to WhatsApp.

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In the streaming category, the Boomplay app led with a 33 percent share followed by Google’s YouTube at 29 percent and Audiomack at five percent.

Shazam, the audio identification app places 4th at four percent followed by MTN’s all-in-one messaging and streaming app; Ayoba, and video-on-demand (VOD) service apps Iroko TV and Netflix with two percent each.

Access Bank leads the category of top banking apps with 11 percent followed by UBA at 10 percent and GTBank at nine percent.

For fintech apps, OPay tops with a 14 percent lead, followed by Palmpay at seven percent. Kuda followed up at four percent, according to the report.

The proliferation of cryptocurrency in Nigeria is uncertain with Binance at three percent while Chipper Cash and Luno come in at 2nd and 3rd place both maintaining one percent of the user base.

The comprehensive study was carried out using natural fallout and on-sight verification of phone types and downloaded apps.

Speaking in the report, Adetola Adesanoye, business analyst at Orange Groups Limited said, “The research was conducted as a follow-up to our previous study on smartphone and app usage in Lagos, with a focus on determining the current level of smartphone adoption and readiness for new technological innovations among Nigerians.

“The insights gained from this research are useful for FMCGs, Fintech, investors, business owners, tech enthusiasts, and the general public who are curious about mobile app adoption and smartphone penetration in Nigeria.”