According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Africa still records the highest fixed Internet costs in the world.
On the continent, it costs five times more to obtain 5 gigabits (5 Gb). The price of broadband Internet services represents 2.9% of the monthly gross national income (GNI) per capita globally; in Africa, it is estimated at 14.8%.
The Broadband Commission, a special body of the ITU, considers Internet prices to be affordable if they are equal to or less than 2% of GNI. In its report "The State of Broadband 2024: Leveraging AI for Universal Connectivity," published in June 2024, the Broadband Commission indicates that the inaccessibility of the service in Africa is due to low purchasing power.
"Lack of financial means remains a major barrier to Internet access, especially in low-income economies. A significant gap persists between high-income economies and the rest of the world," states the report, as cited by wearetech.africa.
Beyond the continent's purchasing power, this high cost is also a consequence of insufficient telecom infrastructure in Africa, which forces some markets to make the most of the limited resources available at a high price. "Fixed broadband networks are very costly to deploy, maintain, and upgrade, depending on the geography and the extent of the territory to cover," says the ITU.
The Broadband Commission estimates that nearly $100 billion is currently needed to fully cover the continent with Internet by 2030.