A new report ‘The African Mobile Apps landscape’ has revealed that Nigeria recorded the highest number of app installations in Africa in 2020.

Nigeria had 43 per cent of total app installations on the African continent, leading South Africa who had 37 per cent and Kenya 29 per cent. The report by Appsflyer is in conjunction with Google.

According to the report, Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions in the global app market, with a young, mobile-first population. It stated that the lockdown restrictions which was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, made people spend much more time at home which led to mobile users’ screen time rocketing.

It said overall installations in Africa increased by 41 per cent, with Android installations leading the way.

The report said gaming apps installations increased by 50 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, adding that between Q2 2020 and Q1 2021, in-app advertising revenue increased by 167 per cent.

To arrive at the figures in the report, AppsFlyer carried out an analysis of 6,000 apps and two billion installations across Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya.

According to the report, Android has the largest market share of operating systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

It said from Q1 to Q2 2020, overall app installations only increased by 20 per cent, with South Africa ahead with 17 per cent, while Nigeria and Kenya had two per cent and nine per cent installations respectively.

It said over the period in review, finance app installations grew by 60 per cent in Nigeria, but surged by 116 per cent in South Africa.

The report added that South Africa had a 213 per cent increase in in-app advertising revenue in the period under review, dwarfing Nigeria’s 141 per cent and Kenya’s 74 per cent.

It added that app downloads had seen an increase in in-app advertising revenue too, with Q1 2021 witnessing a 167 per cent rise in particular.