Mobile phones driving user growth in Africa: Facebook

More than 80 percent of the 120 million Africans using Facebook access the site through their mobile phones, the social media group said Thursday.

“Mobile is not a trend; it’s the fastest adoption of disruptive technology in the history of communication,” said Facebook’s head of Africa Nunu Ntshingila.

Africa has experienced an explosion of mobile phone penetration in recent years which the International Communications Union estimates to be around 63 percent.

For many Africans faced with poor or non-existent landline infrastructure, mobile phones have also offered a route to the Internet without laptops or desktop computers.

More than a quarter of Africa’s total Facebook users are found in three countries — Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, according to statistics released Thursday.

Nigeria has 15 million users, South Africa 12 million and Kenya 4.5 million.

Facebook, which opened its first African office in Johannesburg earlier this year, saw its user population on the continent swell to 120 million in June from 100 million in September 2014.

Two-thirds of all Internet users in Africa are active on Facebook, it said.