Lagos missing among top 10 tweeting African cities

A new study analysing Twitter use in Africa has ranked Lagos 11th on the list of the most active tweeting cities on the continent.

Despite the fact that Nigeria is the largest country on the continent in terms of population, none of its metropolitan cities occupied the top 10 most active tweeting cities in Africa, according to the survey.

Even in the West African sub-region, Ghanaian capital city, Accra, and former capital city of Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, were rated ahead of Lagos, Kano and Ibadan which made the top 20 on the list.

The study was undertaken by Portland Communications, a strategic digital communications agency based variously in New York, London and Nairobi, Kenya. It was entitled, “How Africa Tweets.”

The study, while examining Twitter use on the continent, highlighted the various languages that were used the most and the issues that drove conversations on the micro-blogging service during the last three months of 2013.

According to the report, three of Africa’s top five tweeting cities are in South Africa, while the other two are in Egypt. The study listed Johannesburg — the largest city in South Africa by population — as the most active in Africa. It reported that Johannesburg sent out posts from the social network more frequently than any other city in Africa, as it accounted for 344,215 geo-located tweets during the fourth quarter of 2013.

Ekurhuleni, a city in the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, followed Johannesburg with 264,172 tweets; while Egyptian capital, Cairo, came third in the rankings with 227,509 geo-located tweets.

South Africa’s second most important manufacturing hub, Durban (163,019); and Egyptian city of Alexandria (159,534) make up the remainder of the top five most active tweeting cities in Africa.

As South Africa and Egypt were rated highly in the survey, Kenya led the pack in the East African region. Its capital, Nairobi, was listed as the sixth most tweeting city on the continent.

The survey, which ranked Accra as the topmost active in the West African sub-region, said the city occupied the eighth position overall with 78,575 geo-located tweets.

Abidjan was regarded as second most active in the region, with 56,054 tweets emanating from the city.

It, however, noted that the most eager Twitter users in Nigeria live in Lagos. The company said its findings showed that between October and December 2013, 44,392 tweets emanated from Lagos; adding that the pan-African Twitter analysis found that Kano and Ibadan residents were also prolific users of the social network, as the two cities occupied the 13th and 14th positions respectively.

The company explained that English, French and Arabic were the most common languages used on the social network on the continent, adding that Tuesdays and Fridays were the most active tweeting days in the three-month period.

“English, French and Arabic are the most common languages on Twitter in Africa, accounting for 75.5 per cent of the total tweets analysed. However, Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Portuguese are the next most commonly tweeted languages in Africa.

“Besides, Tuesdays and Fridays are the most active tweeting days on the continent. Twitter activity rises steadily through the afternoon and evening, with peak volumes around 10pm.

“Brands in Africa are increasingly becoming prevalent on Twitter. Twitter use around the world is on the rise. That story isn’t new. But who are these tweeters and where are they? With data pulled directly from the Twitter Application Programming Interface, here are the tweets coming out of Africa’s 20 most populated cities,” the company wrote in the summary of the report.

The study authors said football was the most discussed topic on Twitter in Africa, with the most mentioned soccer team being Orlando Pirates of South Africa.

“During Q4 2013, football was discussed more than any other topic, including the death of Nelson Mandela. Politically-related hashtags were more limited than other issues,” it added.

The latest study is a build-up on the 2012 report, which focused on countries rather than cities that are most active on the micro-blogging service.

In the 2012 survey, the company analysed more than 11.5 million geo-located tweets from the final three months of 2011 and found that South Africa led all African countries, making up almost 44 per cent of the total tweets sent, ahead of Kenya (22 per cent) and Nigeria (14 per cent). Egypt and Morocco completed the top five positions on the list.

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