Opera has announced that it gave away about N5 billion to its Nigerian users of its popular Opera Mini browser in 2023.
It stated that Nigerians have benefited from over 3.76 terabytes of free data, which is the equivalent of about N5 billion in 2023 alone.
Opera said it’s a good time to look at how the company accomplished this feat, and how Nigerian users are profiting from using Opera Mini.
Recall that Opera was among the first tech companies to enter the African market. It also has a long history of working to bring more people online.
“Back in 2017, the company pledged to invest over $100M to support digitalization across the African continent, which it has already achieved.
“Free data campaigns have been a key cog of that initiative. They allow users access to up to 1.5GB of free data each month when browsing with Opera Mini on a partnered telecom network, such as Airtel or MTN.
“Opera’s free data campaigns have up to date benefitted over 40 million users in six countries across the continent.
“Opera’s objective has been to help close the digital divide, which is an improving but still prevalent issue in Nigeria and other African countries.
“Nigeria, for example, has a total population of over 230 million, but only 103 million Nigerians have access to the internet. This means that the internet penetration rate of the most populous black nation is only 45.5 percent.
“This is in large part because the internet remains unaffordable for many in Nigeria.
Nigeria is a country in which around 60% of the population is below the poverty line.
Many subsist on a monthly salary as low as 90,000 NGN, in which case a monthly data package of 20GB would consume 12% of their income.
source: BusinessDay
