Abstract
In 2012, as part of its response to mobile digital divide, the Nigerian government introduced mobile phone subsidies to rural farmers and did not seem to have achieved the expected results. It was argued that no necessary analysis of socioeconomic factors affecting mobile phone ownership had been conducted previously. The paper took advantage of this period to examine socio-economic factors affecting the probability of mobile phone ownership in Nigeria. In order to estimate a logit model we used national representative data from DataFirst on households and individuals ICT access and usage in 2011-2012. In contrast to what had previously been thought, we found out that poverty may not be correlated with the probability of owning a mobile phone. Type of electricity source, education, and activity has the greatest effect on the probability of owning a mobile phone. The findings may help to improve more coordinated digital divide policy, and serve as a complement to ICT Roadmap 2017 to 2020 in Nigeria and similar countries.