Starlink now offers a 20% discount purchase rate to their Nigerian customers following a new partnership with e-commerce platform Jumia.
The satellite internet company, a subsidiary owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX extended its internet services to Africa in 2023, in an effort to provide an ultra speed internet connection to both rural and urban users in the continent. A wonderful option made available for the African market. Starlink satellite is 60 times closer to Earth than any traditional satellite, the network service’s 100 Mbps download speed is nearly ten times faster than the typical mobile internet download speed in sub-Saharan Africa, where broadband penetration is relatively still low.
As of now, Starlink is licensed to operate in select African countries, that includes Nigeria, Mauritius, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Kenya with plans to Expand into additional countries across the continent by year-end. The additional cost to ship the starlink router in addition to the continuous rise in dollar against the Nigerian currency Naira, posed a big challenge to users who desired the service but had to pay an extra fee for the logistics before delivery.
Who is Starlink partners in Nigeria?
With a customer user base of over 3.1 million active quarterly users in Nigeria alone, Jumia, became an ideal partner for Starlink. Part of the deal allows Jumia to exclusively handle the distribution of SpaceX products all across Africa.
Jumia’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) “Hisham El Gabry”, in an interview expressed confidence in their distribution abilities across Nigeria and Africa in General. The logistics network plans to kickstart sales through their online platforms and agents, initially targeting Nigeria and subsequently to Kenya.
How much is Starlink in Nigeria
The cost to own a Starlink kit in Nigeria initially was, ₦378,000 ($378) But with the 20% discount, the company is offering slash in sales, now selling at ₦299,000 ($299) after partnering with the e-commerce platform Jumia.
Is Starlink Affordable In Nigeria?
Nigeria is the first African country to access Starlink’s robust internet service as of January 2023, but the main stumbling block to have access to the product kits in Nigeria, was in its affordability.
To start with, the present cost to acquire the SpaceX kit in Nigeria, was above the Living cost of an average Nigerian. Even with a 20% discount, the monthly salary of an average Nigerian is around ₦124,000 ($124), not talking about the extra shipping cost and the monthly subscription plans to comfortably accommodate the service.
| With a total population of approximately 223,804,632 people in 2023, |
70% of Nigerians still struggle with a sluggish internet speed. The average internet quality in the country only rose to a mere 10.9% in 2023, inspite of Starlink’s solution to reach majority of the population in African countries. To overcome these challenges, The Satellite company has inked a strategic partnership deal with the e-commerce giant Jumia, in Nigeria and across other African countries for the distribution of its service kits.
