1 out of 4 Moroccans made an online purchase in 2020, finds the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) in the “ICT equipment and uses in 2020’s” report.
The public body responsible for the control and regulation of the telecommunications sector in Morocco conducted a study around the ICT equipment and uses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In partnership with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Green and Digital Economy, the High Commission for Planning, the Economic, the National Control Commission for the Protection of Personal Data, and other public bodies, the report monitored the pandemic’s effect on speeding up the digitization of Moroccan society.
8 out of 10 people believe that the pandemic has accelerated the use of digital tools in Morocco and that these changes will last, according to the survey’s results that targeted 3840 Moroccans in rural and urban areas.
The most remarkable phenomenon in 2020, according to the report, is the frequency of online shopping which is 2 to 5 times for more than three-quarters of the population, as it increased by more than 3 points in 2020 (18.6%) compared to 2019 (15.1%).
The context of the pandemic and what it entailed in terms of teleworking, e-learning, and e-commerce has broadened the Internet users base and increased the rate of smartphone and computer equipment in Moroccan households.
8 out of 10 Moroccan households have Internet access. The increase is more important in rural areas, as in 2020, the rate of households with internet equipment reached 71.9%, an increase of 5.6 percent compared to 2019.
The increase in internet equipment led to 3.5 M more Moroccans joining the community of Internet users last year, recording a remarkable jump in internet use rate with an increase of 14.4% between 2019 and 2020.
Social networks presented a new place of sociability amid the pandemic, and especially in the midst of the first strict quarantine of March 2020.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media tools, attracted more Internet users in both urban and rural areas and as many men as women. With the exception of Internet users aged 75 and over, all age groups exceed the 95% threshold for social media attendance.
While in 2019 PC and Tablet equipment stabilized, 2020 recorded a substantial increase with a 64.2% equipment rate.
The report finds that 1 out of 4 people in Morocco own a PC or tablet, an increase of 23% compared to 2019.
“Desktop computers are in sharp decline: this is the corollary of factors related to teleworking. One in three households is equipped with a tablet, thus confirming the trend towards mobility. There is an interesting jump in rural areas with +8 pts,” states the report.
The growth of mobile telephone accounts is progressing faster than the demographic growth, said the document. More than 840,000 new people have acquired a mobile phone, which represents 140% of the population growth between 2019 and 2020 (+365,000).
25.7 million Individuals aged 5 years and over are equipped with smartphones, according to the report’s states.
The newly released document, also, recorded an interesting increase in smartphone equipment in rural areas by 6.5% compared to 2019. However, individuals who own a laptop or a tablet in rural areas stays less than 9% in 2020.
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