Yesterday, at the launch of NG_HUB, Chukwuemeka Afigbo, Manager, Developer Programme at Facebook revealed that about 26 million Nigerians now log in on the social networking site every month.

He also revealed that Nigeria is still mobile-first as about 25 million Nigerians access the Facebook platform via their mobile devices.

As at February 2016, when Facebook released its last official report, over 16 million Nigerians used Facebook actively every month. These new figures tell us that between 2016 and now, about 10 million more Nigerians have become active on Facebook, an indication that mobile penetration in Nigeria is growing significantly.

Chief among the reasons for this growth is the increasing smartphone adoption in Nigeria owing to a dip in the prices of smartphones.

Jumia Nigeria’s Mobile Report 2018 revealed that the average price of smartphones reduced from $117 in 2016 to $100 in 2017. This drop in price can be attributed to the influence of Chinese OEMs like Transsion Holdings in the African mobile market.

Another reason is the fall in the price of mobile data. In October 2016, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) lifted the data floor price, giving operators liberty to drop their data tariffs as it suits them.

This lift led to a competitive mobile data market affording Nigerians access to Internet data at cheaper prices.

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Now, network providers allow affordable social bundle subscription that allows Nigerians access social networking sites of their choice for as low as ₦25 daily, depending on the plan.

Facebook also contributed to the increasing number of Nigerians on its platform. In order to address the challenge of access to internet data, in 2016, the company launched Free Basics in partnership with Airtel to afford Nigerians without data access to the platform.

Judging by these numbers and recent projections, mobile penetration in Nigeria will continue to grow exponentially.