Nigeria has emerged as the global leader in the percentage of social media users who rely on the platforms primarily for news, according to the Digital 2025 Report by We Are Social and Meltwater.
The data shows that 56.6% of Nigerian social media users aged 16 and above say reading news is a main reason they use social media, placing the country ahead of Brazil (52.8%) and Turkey (52.0%), which rank second and third, respectively.
The report highlights that more than half of its users in the top five countries — Nigeria, Brazil, Turkey, Greece (50.2%), and Argentina (49.7%) — consider news consumption a key motivator for logging onto their favourite platforms.
In Africa, Nigeria is closely followed by Morocco (49.3%), Ghana (47.5%), and South Africa (45.0%), underscoring the continent’s growing reliance on digital platforms for information.
Globally, the report finds that only 34.5% of social media users identify news as their primary reason for being online, making Nigeria’s figure more than 22 percentage points higher than the worldwide average.
Analysts say this trend reflects Nigeria’s vibrant online discourse, increasing mobile internet penetration, and the central role of platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, and Instagram in shaping public opinion. However, experts also caution that heavy reliance on social media for news raises concerns about misinformation and echo chambers.
The findings underline a shifting media landscape where digital platforms continue to eclipse traditional news outlets in reach and influence, especially among younger audiences.
