From BusinessDaily. Story by Daniel Ojabo.

Smartphone penetration in Nigeria continues to soar as consumers demand Internet access everywhere. According to recent research by Ericsson ConsumerLab, more than 95 percent of mobile broadband users in the country access mobile broadband on smartphones.

According to the research, mobile phones have the highest device share of Internet services. Nigeria has one of the world’s largest mobile subscriber markets and the availability of more low-cost smartphones is also fuelling growth in data traffic.

Smartphone shipments to Nigeria soared 135 percent year-on-year in 2014, spurred by the increased availability of low-cost models and dual-SIM devices according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

The Ericsson ConsumerLab report also revealed that 84 percent of smartphones were connected to the Internet with 82 percent of mobile phone users accessing the Internet with their device on a daily basis.

…Nigeria has indeed leapfrogged personal computer-based Internet browsing and is the true leader of mobile first and mobile only.

Nigeria currently leads with the highest mobile data traffic, with 77 percent of the traffic coming from its 83 million Internet user base — ahead of India and South Africa, according to BusinesDay analysis of first quarter 2015 statistics from independent web analytics firm StatCounter.

…Strong demand for mobile data services in Nigeria saw South Africa-based MTN record a 20 percent jump in net profit in 2014 from the previous year. Data-usage revenue jumped by 33 percent to account for nearly a fifth of MTN’s overall revenue as more subscribers than ever before consume data on smartphones, MTN said.

Read more at BusinessDaily.