Approximately 4.9 million individuals aged 15 and above in Ghana do not possess a functional smartphone, with a significantly higher number of females (3.0 million) compared to males (1.8 million) without smartphones, according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service.
The data reveals that the percentage of the population without smartphones corresponds to the percentage of individuals who are offline.
Among individuals aged 15 and above, 24.6% do not own a functional smartphone, with 19.2% of males and 29.6% of females falling into this category.
The regions with the highest percentage of individuals aged 15 and above lacking functional smartphones are Savannah (57.3%), North East (55.2%), and Northern (50.7%).
A total of 40 districts in Ghana have over 50% of their population without smartphones, with North East Gonja district leading at 76.0%.
In Karaga (73.0%), Mion (72.3%), and Gushegu Municipal (71.8%) districts, over three-quarters of the population are without smartphones.
Furthermore, the report indicates that more than half of the population aged 15 and above in the Savannah (58.7%), North East (55.8%), and Northern (51.5%) regions do not use the internet, making these regions have the highest proportion of offline individuals.
Except for the Greater Accra region, all other regions have more than 10.0% of the population aged 15 and above who did not use the internet in the past three months.
