20 African countries with the most expensive average prices of mobile data
Earlier, we reported about the agitation by Nigerian telecom operators to increase the prices of the services, a development that was met with uproar across the country.
Just in case you missed that, the telcos wrote the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to demand an upward review of the prices of data, call and SMS; citing higher cost of doing business. Needless to say that Nigerians weren’t too pleased with the demand.
The development piqued our curiosity to find out how much people in other parts of Africa are paying for telecom services.
We particularly sought to find out whether Nigeria is among the most expensive countries in Africa to buy mobile data. Well, as it turns out, the country currently has one of the cheapest prices of mobile data on the continent.
The average price for one gigabyte data in Nigeria is $0.88.
Some interesting facts
According to Statista, about 480 million Africans currently have access to mobile internet. These are 480 million people who must buy data either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in order to remain connected to the world wide web. Interestingly, these people do not all pay the same prices for the service, as you will see shortly.
It should be noted that African countries generally have some of the most expensive costs of mobile data in the world. The aforementioned source (i.e., Statista) explained that the high cost is due to various factors, including unavailability of infrastructure and high taxation in the African telecom industry.
20 African countries with the most expensive prices of mobile data
That said, we shall now focus on the 20 African countries with the most expensive average prices of mobile data. The list is based on a stats from Statista dated December 2021.
See the list below.
- Equatorial Guinea: This country currently has the most expensive price of mobile data, with one gigabyte costing as much as $49.67.
- Sao Tome and Principe: Here, one gigabyte data would cost you $30.97.
- Malawi: Malawians pay the third most expensive price of mobile data in Africa at $25.46 per gigabyte.
- Chad: This Sahelian African country has the fourth most expensive price of mobile data at $23.33.
- Namibia: People in Namibia spend an average of $22.37 to buy one gigabyte data.
- Central African Republic: In CAR, the average price for one gigabyte data is $9.03.
- Seychelles: This island African country comes in at number seven with an average price of $8.64 per gigabyte data.
- Gambia: The average price for one gigabyte data in Gambia is $5.86.
- Mauritania: The average price for one gigabyte data is in this West African country is $5.56.
- Madagascar: In this country, the average price for one gigabyte data is $5:14.
- Gabon: The average price for one gigabyte data in Gabon is $4.82.
- Cape Verde: Here, the average price for one gigabyte data is $4.78.
- Togo: Togolese spend an average of $4.69 to buy one gigabyte data.
- Burkina Faso: Here, the average price for one gigabyte data is $4.52.
- Guinea-Bissau: The average price for one gigabyte data in this country is $4.41.
- Botswana: Botswanans spend an average of $3.92 for one gigabyte data.
- Benin: People in Benin Republic spend an average of $3.61 for one gigabyte data.
- Mali: In this country, the average price of one gigabyte data is $3.28.
- Sierra Leone: Here, the average price for one gigabyte data is $3.26.
- Comoros: Here, the average price for one gigabyte data is $3.21.
