Internet Usage in Ghana
Ghana’s internet penetration rate stood at 68.2 percent of the total population at the start of 2023. 10.75 million people in Ghana did not use the internet at the start of 2023, suggesting that 31.8 percent of the population remained offline and remained offline at the beginning of the year.
Ghana in August 1995 became the next African country to have full Internet connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa. This historic achievement was brought about by cooperation among several organizations, including Network Computer Systems (NCS), Pipex International, The Ministry of Transport and Communication of Ghana, Ghana Telecom, and British Telecom.The enormous efforts to get Ghana fully connected was accomplished by Dr. Nii Quaynor and his strong technical team, composed of William Tevie, Joseph Annan, Andy Bulley, and others in NCS. NCS is an Information Technology company providing variety of services in Ghana.
Ghana’s total population stood at 33.80 million in January 2023. Data shows that Ghana’s population increased by 643 thousand (+1.9 percent) between 2022 and 2023. 50.1 percent of Ghana’s population is female, while 49.9 percent of the population is male. At the start of 2023, 58.9 percent of Ghana’s population lived in urban centers, while 41.1 percent lived in rural areas.
Device Access and Internet Speed in Ghana The increase in internet users in Ghana is largely due to more affordable smartphones and mobile data plans. Data published by Ookla indicate that internet users in Ghana could have expected the following internet connection speeds at the start of 2023: Median mobile internet connection speed via cellular networks: 7.90 Mbps. Median fixed internet connection speed: 27.70 Mbps. Ghanaians use mobile phones for internet browsing over laptops/desktops and tablet devices, with GSMA Intelligence’s numbers, indicating that mobile connections in Ghana were 43.88 million cellular mobile connections in Ghana at the start of 2023. The number of mobile connections in Ghana increased by 2.6 million (+6.2 percent) between 2021 and 2022.
The growth of internet users in Ghana is largely attributed to more affordable smartphones and mobile data plans.
- The number of households with internet access at home in Ghana is forecast to amount to 4.57m in 2024.
- The number of mobile Internet users in Ghana is forecast to amount to 24.24m in 2024.
- The number of internet users in Ghana is forecast to amount to 34.08m in 2024.
- The Internet penetration in Ghana is estimated to amount to 98.00% in 2024
Social Media Usage
Ghana has around 8.8 million social media users, a number expected to increase in the coming years. Some of the leading social media platforms in the country are WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Besides the growing usage, these platforms are also the most preferred by the country’s population. Also, most users are on the platforms primarily to keep in touch with friends and family, fill their spare time, or make new connections. For this reason, the types of accounts they follow are mostly those of family, friends, acquaintances, as well as entertainment.
Men and youth dominate the social media population
For most social network platforms, the share of male users was higher than that of women. In 2022, individuals on Facebook were forecast to amount to 10 million. Nearly 60 percent of them were men, while the remaining percentage were women. Also, most Facebook users in Ghana were between the ages of 18 and 34 years. This age-gender gap is similar to other platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn. For instance, male Instagram users covered around 60 percent of the total usage, which was dominated by people aged 18 to 34 years.
With an average time of three hours and 23 minutes spent on social media platforms by Ghanaians, Ghana has been ranked as the sixth country globally, that has its citizens spending the most time on social media.
On the African Continent, Ghana ranks third, trailing behind South Africa and Nigeria which are second and first respectively with their country’s population spending three hours 44 minutes and four hours 20 minutes respectively.
The ranking is according to World Statistics.org.
Spending an extensive amount of time on social media can have both beneficial and negative effects. The argument can go both ways, seeing as some have found a way to monetize their social media, while social media robs some of their time, attention, and productivity. Factors such as internet access and infrastructure, smartphone penetration, demographics, economic conditions, cultural factors, and government regulations, amongst others, contribute to the level of social media use and influence in any given region
| Rank | Country | Time spent (Hours: Minutes) | Global rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nigeria | 04:20 | 1st |
| 2. | South Africa | 03:44 | 3rd |
| 3. | Ghana | 03:23 | 6th |
| 4. | Kenya | 03:22 | 7th |
Source: norvanreports
Social media advertising
In Ghana, the majority of the people that advertising firms could reach on social media were men between the ages of 55 and 64 years and women aged 25 to 34 years. Specifically, more than 919,000 Twitter users were potentially reachable with advertising as of 2022. Moreover, men represented around 60 percent of the Facebook advertising audience, while Instagram’s male advertising population reached 57 percent of the total. Overall, the internet advertising revenue in Ghana was forecast at 27 million U.S. dollars in 2022.
