Nigeria Leads Africa With App Downloads

According to a report released by AppsFlyer, a mobile analytics platform, there has been a surge in mobile app installations across the continent with Nigeria recording the highest rate. 

The report, which was released in collaboration with Google, analysed about 6,000 apps and 2 billion installs across various parts of the continent especially Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. Between the first quarter of 2020-2021, there has been a 43 per cent increase in app installations in Nigeria, followed by South Africa and Kenya, with 37 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

This increase is mostly a result of the fintech growth taking place across the continent, especially in Nigeria. In the past year, there has been a growth of 60 per cent in finance app installs across the country. For a country with underdeveloped banking systems, and about 40 per cent of its population financially excluded, finance mobile apps represent not just innovation but easy access to financial services.

There are currently over 200 fintech startups operating in the country, in what is one of the fastest-growing and most successful startup sectors. Fintech companies have managed to address some major issues in the finance space such as inaccessibility to financial services like loans and investments, turbulent online payments, inflexible savings, poor user experience, and lack of financial literacy, amongst others. All of these, together with the pandemic lockdown which put restrictions on social contact, have sent Nigerians flocking towards fintech mobile apps. 

Of all the services, loan app installations grew the highest, 43.3 per cent, while financial services and investment apps went up by 34.6 per cent and 20.3 per cent respectively. Crypto apps also saw a record number of installations, as Bitcoin trading in the country went up 30 per cent in 2020, from 19 per cent in previous years, according to a report. Data from crypto app Paxful revealed that there was a 137 per cent increase in new registration from Nigeria. 

Another important factor in this installation surge is marketing. In the second quarter of 2020, market spending in the country went up as high as 150 per cent. The CPI (cost per install) also went up to about 70 per cent. Nigeria is not alone in this trend, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, advertisers have had to increase their advertising budget for Android users. As a result, there has been an increase of over 50 per cent in the number of non-organic installs on Android alone, compared to the 19 per cent increase for iOS.

Users haven’t been the only ones flocking towards fintech, as it is estimated space raised $439 million in 2020, which translates to one-fifth of the total sum raised by all tech startups on the continent. 

Before then, between 2014 and 2019, the sector raised over $600 million. In 2019 alone, it received $122 million in funding, which was about 25 per cent of the total $491.6 million raised by all tech startups in Africa, the second-highest after Kenya, which received $149 million. 

Ironically, the majority of investors in the Nigerian fintech space are foreigners, with 57 per cent of fintech funding coming from outside the country. This is unsurprising, as the growth of the country’s fintech space has continually been met with challenges and resistance from its government in the form of unfavourable policies, infrastructural issues (such as poor internet access, speed, and connectivity), and several systemic obstacles.