On the evening of June 24, a magnitude 7.2 foreshock struck north-central Venezuela and, 39 seconds later, a magnitude 7.5 mainshock followed. Both were shallow. The destruction has been concentrated in the northern coastal state of La Guaira and in the capital, Caracas, where La Guaira has been declared a disaster zone. Official figures, which remain the authoritative source for loss of life, ranged, as of June 26, from roughly 188 to 235 dead and more than 4,300 injured, with those numbers expected to rise as search and assessment operations continue.

In the hours that followed, GeoPoll reached households directly through a WhatsApp rapid needs assessment. Between the morning of June 25 and midday June 26, 425 people across the country answered. They told us where the ground shook hardest, what their homes look like now, and what they need to get through the next night.

This is not a story about the whole country. The earthquake was not felt everywhere, and the data makes that clear. It is a story about a band of states along the central coast and capital region where lives were upended, and about the families there who took a moment, in the middle of fear and uncertainty, to tell us what is happening.

Our hearts are with them. The purpose of this assessment is to put an accurate, fast, household-level picture into the hands of the relief and aid organizations responding now, so help reaches the right places without delay.

Why this data matters in this disaster

Two features of this emergency make direct household data unusually valuable.

The first is the clock. Experts widely regard the first 72 hours after a major quake as the most critical window for saving lives, and access to water is often the deciding factor for those still trapped or displaced. In that window, the gap between what responders know and what is actually happening on the ground is where aid is delayed and lives are lost. Relief agencies on the ground, including PAHO and the Red Cross, are still rapidly assessing needs and mapping where to send resources.

Speed of information is itself a form of relief.

The second is the information environment. Disruptions to power and telecommunications, in an already limited information environment, have made it hard for residents and their families abroad to learn what has happened. The United Nations has stressed that timely access to reliable information will be vital to protecting lives in the days ahead. A survey that reaches people directly on the phones already in their hands, and lets them speak for themselves, helps close exactly that gap.

The impact was concentrated, and our data confirms where

The single most important finding is geographic, and it aligns closely with the official picture. When we map self-reported shaking intensity by state, a clear cluster emerges along the north-central coast and capital corridor, the same areas authorities and humanitarian agencies have identified as worst affected.

Felt intensity by state, on a 1 to 10 scale, and the share of respondents who reported violent shaking (8 to 10):

• La Guaira: average 9.2, with all respondents reporting violent shaking
• Capital District (Caracas): average 8.8, 88 percent violent
• Carabobo: average 8.7, 80 percent violent
• Miranda: average 8.4, 80 percent violent
• Aragua: average 8.4, 74 percent violent
• Guárico: average 7.5, 58 percent violent

These six states account for 201 of our 425 responses, roughly 47 percent. La Guaira, which residents rated as the most severe, is the same state where authorities have declared a disaster zone and officials report that more than 70,000 families are affected. Our independent, household-level data points to the same epicenter of suffering.

Outside this band, the picture changes sharply. States such as Zulia (average 2.4), Táchira (2.1), Nueva Esparta (2.4), and Mérida (3.3) reported little more than a tremor. This contrast is the actionable part: the need is not spread thinly across Venezuela, it is concentrated, and resources directed to the central coast and capital region will reach the people in crisis.

Inside the impact zone: what households are facing

Within those six states, the difference from the rest of the country is stark across every indicator we measured. This is the texture inside the aggregate official totals: not how many families were affected, but what those families are living through tonight.

Homes are damaged. In the impact zone, 99 households reported minor damage and 10 reported severe, unsafe, or destroyed homes, including one home completely destroyed in La Guaira. Across the rest of the country combined, only 2 households reported severe damage.

Families are displaced. In the impact zone, 41 respondents said they will not sleep in their own home. Of those, 22 are staying with relatives or neighbors, 11 are sleeping outdoors or in the street, and others are in shelters or do not yet know where they will sleep. This mirrors what responders are seeing in Caracas and La Guaira, where many residents are spending nights outside, afraid that weakened buildings could collapse in an aftershock.

Water is the most acute shortage. In the impact zone, 19 households reported no drinking water at all and 64 more reported only limited water. Caracas alone accounts for 10 of the households with no water and 23 with limited supply. With water widely identified as the deciding factor for survival in this window, this is among the most urgent signals in the data.

Food and power are strained. 87 households in the impact zone reported limited food and 11 reported none. On electricity, 47 reported intermittent power and 9 reported none.

People are cut off. In the impact zone, 67 respondents could reach only some of their family and friends, and 3 could reach none. Roads are blocked or partially blocked for 18 respondents, slowing both escape and the arrival of help. Hospitals were reported damaged, closed, or unreachable by 14 respondents, at a time when health facilities are already operating under mass casualty protocols.

The human toll, in the words of those reporting it

We are intentionally not publishing our own casualty figures. Official numbers exist and should remain the reference for loss of life.

What we can responsibly share is how many people, in their own homes, reported these emergencies. Each number below is a household that reached out:

• 10 respondents in the impact zone reported someone trapped in a building, across La Guaira, Caracas, Carabobo, Aragua, and Miranda. No respondent outside the impact zone reported anyone trapped.
• 10 respondents reported injuries in their household, one of them flagging an urgent, life-threatening medical need.
• 8 respondents reported a family member missing.
• 8 respondents reported a gas leak or fire risk near their home, a danger that compounds in the hours after a quake.

Behind each of these is a voice. One respondent in Caracas, sleeping outdoors after their home was damaged, wrote only that they need “un hogar,” a home. A mother in Caracas wrote that her son is in La Guaira and she has not been able to reach him since 11 that morning. In La Guaira, where a home was completely destroyed, a respondent now in a public shelter asked for one thing: “hogar.” Others, even those displaced to relatives’ homes, asked first for water and food, and several asked for psychological support and simply for calm: “tranquilidad, estamos muy nerviosos.”

What people are asking for

When we asked what information households need most but cannot get, the answer in the impact zone was overwhelming: 127 respondents want aftershock and safety updates. Another 17 want to know whether it is safe to return home, 10 need to know how to get medical help, 10 are trying to locate missing family, and 8 are looking for shelter.

This is the information gap made concrete. In an environment where reliable updates are hard to come by, people are not only short on water and shelter, they are short on the knowledge they need to stay safe and make decisions. The most requested immediate needs in open responses were consistent and basic: water, food, shelter, and reassurance. These match the priorities relief actors have named, from the Red Cross call for emergency shelter and trauma care to the government distribution of drinking water, food, mattresses, and blankets. They are needs a coordinated relief effort can meet quickly if directed to the right places.

Why speed and precision matter now

This assessment was completed in under 28 hours, with responses arriving from the morning of June 25 through midday June 26. That speed is the point. The data here narrows the gap between what responders know and what is happening on the ground, and it does so through the voices of the people living it.

It shows where the earthquake hit hardest, confirming the official focus on La Guaira and Caracas, and it adds resolution inside those areas: water and shelter for the central coast and capital region, medical outreach where hospitals are compromised, family-tracing support for those still searching, and trusted safety information for communities bracing for aftershocks.

We are sharing this assessment, and the live dashboard (with near-realtime numbers since the survey is still in the field) alongside it, openly with the relief and aid community. The dashboard lets responders filter by state and explore each indicator in detail, and it continues to update as more responses arrive.

To the families across La Guaira, Caracas, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, and Guárico who answered while living through this: thank you. Your voices are now part of the effort to bring help to your communities.

This rapid needs assessment was conducted by GeoPoll via WhatsApp survey. Figures reflect 425 completed responses collected June 25 to June 26, 2026, and represent an early-stage, unweighted sample of self-reported conditions. They are intended to guide and accelerate humanitarian response and to complement, not replace, official damage and casualty figures, which remain the authoritative source for loss of life. Responses were collected anonymously, and quotes are published without identifying information.

For more information:

GeoPoll specializes in reaching people that other data collection methods miss, gathering direct household input from hard-to-reach and crisis-affected populations across emerging markets, fast.

If your organization is responding to this earthquake, we want this data in your hands, and we are ready to help you use it. The full, updated dataset will remain ready and available, and our team can break it down by state, indicator, or population group to match what your response needs. We can also field follow-up questions to the same households or launch a new rapid assessment within hours, so your decisions stay grounded in what people on the ground are reporting.

Reach out to the GeoPoll team to access the data, request a custom cut, or set up a briefing.

The post Report – Inside the First Hours After the Venezuela Earthquake appeared first on GeoPoll.

• 77% report having heard of or witnessed incidents in the past 12 months, showing that migration-related tensions are highly visible in everyday life and public discourse.
• 75% say violence against foreign nationals is never acceptable, reflecting a strong normative rejection of violence despite ongoing tensions.
• 54% disagree with attacks on foreign nationals, indicating general opposition to violence but also a notable level of uncertainty or weaker conviction among some respondents.
• 41% hold a neutral overall attitude toward foreign nationals, suggesting many people are neither strongly supportive nor strongly opposed, but instead ambivalent.
• 63% say social media is their primary source of information on incidents, underscoring its strong influence in shaping perceptions and narratives.
• 43% believe all levels of society are responsible for improving relations, indicating only partial agreement on shared responsibility for addressing tensions.

Awareness of Incidents Involving Foreign Nationals

In South Africa, issues involving foreign nationals are widely known and experienced. About 77% of respondents say they have heard of or personally witnessed incidents or tensions involving foreign nationals in the past year, while only 19% say they have not.

This shows that such experiences are not rare or limited to certain areas. Instead, they are commonly seen or heard about across cities, towns, and rural communities, making them part of everyday public awareness rather than isolated events.

Source of information

Social media is, by a clear margin, the dominant channel through which South Africans encounter information about incidents involving foreign nationals. 63% of respondents say they mainly get news and accounts of such tensions from platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), TikTok, WhatsApp groups, and other social media platforms. These platforms combine official news, personal testimonies, commentary, and viral content, meaning that information is often fast-moving, highly visible, and shaped by both verified reporting and user-generated narratives.

Traditional media such as television and radio account for only 21% as a primary source, highlighting a significant shift away from conventional broadcast journalism. Far fewer respondents rely on direct or interpersonal channels, with personal experience cited by 8% and friends or family by just 3%. This distribution suggests that most perceptions are formed not through close personal networks or direct encounters, but through mediated digital environments where information spreads quickly and is often shaped by amplification, framing, and repetition.

Overall attitudes toward foreign nationals

When asked to describe their overall attitude toward foreign nationals living in South Africa, the largest share of respondents, 41% identify as neutral. This is an important signal, suggesting that a significant portion of the population has not formed firm opinions and may still be open to influence, information, and changing circumstances.

Among those who do express a clearer position, positive sentiment (32% combined) slightly outweighs negative sentiment (27% combined). Rather than a strongly polarized society, the results point to a public that is divided but not fixed, where many views are still forming and are shaped by ongoing experiences, information flows, and prevailing narratives.

At a glance

The data paints a picture of a nation grappling with a complex social issue rather than one driven by hostility. A significant majority of respondents (77%) report having heard of or witnessed incidents involving foreign nationals within the past year. This level of awareness suggests that tensions surrounding migration are not remote or isolated events; they are part of everyday conversations, media coverage, community experiences, and, for some, direct personal encounters.

Yet, despite this widespread exposure, most South Africans reject violence as a response. Three-quarters (75%) say that violence against foreign nationals is never acceptable, while 54% explicitly oppose attacks targeting them. This contrast is one of the survey’s most important findings. It reveals a society that is highly aware of migration-related tensions but largely unwilling to endorse violent action. The coexistence of concern and restraint, frustration and rejection of violence, underscores the nuanced nature of public sentiment and highlights the distinction between recognizing a problem and supporting harmful responses to it.

The post Report: South Africa Social Tensions Survey 2026 appeared first on GeoPoll.

The post World Cup 2026 Report: Interest, Viewership and Betting in Africa appeared first on GeoPoll.

The post Public Opinion on Proposed US-Supported Ebola Facility in Kenya appeared first on GeoPoll.

On 15 May 2026, the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared its 17th Ebola outbreak. Within 48 hours, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As of late May, more than 1,200 suspected and confirmed cases had been reported with over 260 deaths. The outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola strain for which no approved vaccine yet exists. Imported cases have been confirmed in Uganda, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

For GeoPoll, the news triggered an immediate question that has driven our work for the past twelve years: how do we collect reliable, representative data from communities that field teams cannot safely or easily reach, fast enough to inform a live response.

This article walks through GeoPoll’s published experience supporting responses to Ebola, COVID-19, cholera, and Mpox across Africa and Asia, and lays out what we offer partners now.

Where it began: West Africa, 2014

The 2014 to 2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak killed nearly 12,000 people across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. It also became the moment that mobile data collection in humanitarian crises moved from promising idea to operational reality.

When the outbreak peaked, GeoPoll was finalising its SMS survey system in Liberia. As we documented in the Journal of Health Communication, that timing meant we could begin running surveys immediately. We did not have to build infrastructure from scratch in the middle of a crisis. The same is true today. Our platform, panel, and mobile network operator integrations are in place in the affected countries before the next outbreak begins.

What we did across the West Africa outbreak

In the years that followed, our SMS and CATI surveys in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea covered a range of programme questions. Several of these projects are documented in published case studies and peer-reviewed work:

• Food security tracking with the United Nations World Food Programme. Over three months in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, we collected indicators on food prices, wages, and household coping. The work adapted the reduced Coping Strategies Index for mobile delivery, with prior validation showing no significant difference between mobile and face-to-face collection. Case study.
• Market functionality monitoring for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Panel-based SMS surveys with market traders in Sierra Leone and Liberia, tracking market sizes, operating costs, stock levels, and agricultural activity through ten rounds. Case study.
• Long-term economic impact surveys for the USAID Bureau for Africa and FHI360. Thirteen rounds of nationally stratified surveys in Liberia and Sierra Leone between January and June 2015, tracking income, employment, food prices, and schooling. Sample base of 1.8 million in Sierra Leone and 1.6 million in Liberia, with 1,000 completes per country per round. Case study.
• Health communications research with Johns Hopkins University in Liberia. SMS-based community dialogue and rumour tracking, supporting Ebola risk communication and community engagement. Documented in the academic literature.
• Community perceptions in Sierra Leone with Keystone Accountability. Assessing how the population viewed the international community’s response in real time.

Across the West Africa outbreak, GeoPoll reached more than 100,000 people. The methods worked because the people we surveyed already had access to mobile phones, our network operator integrations meant respondents incurred no cost to participate, and the SMS and voice modes did not require enumerators to enter quarantine zones or treatment areas.

What we learned

Three operational lessons from 2014 to 2016 still shape how we run surveys during outbreaks today:

• Keep surveys short. On SMS, response rates drop sharply beyond 12 to 15 questions. The constraint forces discipline on what we ask.
• Pre-code open-ended questions. 160-character limits and noisy environments mean structured response options outperform free text for most use cases.
• Always offer airtime credit on completion. Small incentives (we have typically used the local equivalent of about USD 0.50) significantly improve completion rates among low-income respondents.

Beyond West Africa: outbreaks in the DRC and the eastern corridor

Between 2018 and 2020, the DRC experienced two more large Ebola outbreaks in the eastern part of the country, primarily in North Kivu and Ituri. GeoPoll deployed mobile surveys during these outbreaks as well, focused on socio-economic impact and information flow. By the time we entered the COVID-19 era in 2020, we had effectively built a playbook for outbreak response work and applied it across an expanding set of geographies and health threats.

Our experience now spans the major health emergencies of the last decade:

• Ebola: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea (2014 to 2016) and the DRC (2018 to 2020)
• COVID-19: 30+ countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia
• Cholera: Zambia (2024) and other African geographies
• Mpox: DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Central African Republic, and Kenya (2024)
• Other infectious disease and vaccine work: malaria, polio, measles, yellow fever, and routine immunisation studies across multiple African countries

COVID-19: when the playbook scaled

When COVID-19 reached sub-Saharan Africa in 2020, the methods we had refined for Ebola scaled up overnight. Between 2020 and 2022, GeoPoll ran self-funded and partner-funded research across more than 30 countries, covering economic impact, food security, vaccine acceptance, and risk communication. Findings from our November 2020 vaccine acceptance study across Cote d’Ivoire, the DRC, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa were archived publicly in ICPSR and used by researchers and policy makers globally.

We continued tracking vaccine perceptions across multiple rounds. The April 2021 follow-up, reported on the GeoPoll blog, found that fewer than half of respondents (48 percent) felt they had been given enough trustworthy information about the vaccine, a finding that mirrored what we were seeing on the ground.

The COVID work cemented two principles we now apply by default in outbreak research:

• Multi-mode is non-negotiable. SMS reaches the broadest base but limits depth. CATI handles longer instruments and complex skip logic. Mobile web reaches smartphone-heavy segments. In-person fills gaps for offline populations. The best outbreak studies combine modes by design, not as a fallback.
• Trust matters more than reach. A representative sample of people who refuse to answer honestly is not a sample. We invest in respondent identity verification, plain-language consent, and call-centre training in local languages because trust at the moment of the interview drives data quality.

Mpox: turning prior experience into rapid mobilisation

When mpox began spreading through Central and Eastern Africa in 2024, GeoPoll moved into the response within weeks. As we wrote at the time, the parallels with earlier outbreaks were clear: a disease moving faster than traditional surveillance, vaccine hesitancy reshaping its trajectory, and demand from public health partners and pharmaceutical companies for granular, real-time data.

Through late 2024 we ran mpox vaccine acceptance and behaviour monitoring rounds across six African countries: DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Central African Republic, and Kenya. The DRC mpox vaccine acceptance work has since been published in peer-reviewed medical literature and remains one of the largest mobile-based mpox studies on record from that period.

Cholera Zambia: a public-good data drop in the middle of a crisis

In early 2024, while Zambia was managing a cholera outbreak that had infected more than 21,000 people and caused over 700 deaths, GeoPoll ran a self-funded nationwide CATI survey to understand public awareness, water and sanitation access, and behaviour change. The findings were released as a public report on ReliefWeb with an interactive dashboard. The study used a stratified random sample of 400 respondents drawn from our Zambia panel, delivered in English, Bemba, and Nyanja from our Lusaka call centre.

The point of that work was not commercial. It was to demonstrate something that we believe matters more than any single study: in a crisis, the right response is to gather and share data quickly, even when there is no client paying for it.

What we offer partners responding to the 2026 outbreak

The capability that an organisation needs during an outbreak is not abstract. It is a short list of practical things, done quickly and well. Here is what we offer.

Mobile data collection across multiple modes

We run surveys through the channels respondents actually use. Most outbreak studies blend these by design:

• SMS surveys: Free-to-user via mobile network operator integrations. Best for broad reach, short instruments, and reaching low-income or rural populations. Used heavily in our Ebola, COVID, and cholera work.
• Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI): Live calls from our call centres in Nairobi, Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, and Panama City. Best for longer instruments, complex skip logic, sensitive topics, and qualitative depth.
• Mobile web (link-based): Surveys delivered via WhatsApp, SMS link, or other distribution. Best for smartphone-heavy segments, image-based questions, and longer self-completion.
• GeoPoll App: Our smartphone application supports longer panels and incentivised tracking studies.
• In-person interviewing: Where offline populations or sensitive observations are needed, we deploy trained field teams. Used selectively in our outbreak work, primarily for qualitative and validation purposes.

Reach across affected geographies

GeoPoll has more than 5 million profiled panelists and access to over 250 million individuals across 64 countries. In the geographies most relevant to the current Ebola outbreak, our panel and infrastructure are operational today:

• Democratic Republic of the Congo: active panel and call-centre capacity. French, Lingala, Kiswahili, and Kinande supported.
• Uganda: active panel, English and major local languages.
• Adjacent at-risk countries: Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Kenya all have operational panels.

Speed when speed matters

Outbreak response cannot wait three months for fieldwork. Typical timelines for GeoPoll outbreak studies:

Methodology that holds up to scrutiny

Outbreak research is read by epidemiologists, donors, and ethics committees. Our default methodology is designed to pass that scrutiny:

• CDC-aligned KAP frameworks. We design knowledge, attitudes, and practice instruments to be compatible with established disease-response frameworks.
• Stratified random sampling. By gender, age, and geography. We report margins of error and confidence intervals consistently.
• IRB experience. We have participated in institutional review board processes with universities and research partners. Our research follows ESOMAR and WAPOR ethical standards.
• Transparent reporting. Every study reports its sample size, margin of error, languages, mode, and field period. We do not hide methodology.

Senselytic for real-time qualitative analysis

Outbreaks generate a lot of qualitative signal: open-ended responses, call-centre notes, social listening, focus group transcripts. Senselytic, our AI-powered qualitative analysis tool, helps partners extract patterns from this material in hours instead of weeks. We used it to support analysis on multi-country COVID and mpox studies, and it is a core capability for the current Ebola response.

Two ways partners can engage with us

For the current Bundibugyo outbreak, we are offering two complementary engagement options. They can stand alone or run in parallel:

1. Commissioned research

Bespoke studies designed around a single partner’s questions. Suitable when you have specific decision needs, geographic priorities, or contractual reporting requirements. Examples we are equipped to run today include vaccine acceptance and intent, risk communication effectiveness, healthcare-seeking behaviour, rumour and misinformation surveillance, food security and economic impact in affected zones, and case investigation support.

2. Ebola Outbreak Omnibus Survey

A shared, nationally representative DRC survey where multiple organisations contribute custom questions and receive their own answers plus common themes. Costs are shared, fielding is faster, and results are comparable across participating organisations. Suitable for partners who need data but do not require a full standalone study. A parallel Uganda omnibus will run if there is sufficient interest.

Get in Touch

Bundibugyo Ebola has no approved vaccine. The response will succeed or fail on case finding, contact tracing, risk communication, and community trust. All four depend on understanding what people in affected areas actually believe, know, fear, and need. That understanding cannot be assumed and it cannot be sampled from clinic registers alone. It has to be collected from people, in their own language, on a platform they already use.

GeoPoll has been collecting that kind of data through every major African outbreak of the last twelve years. The infrastructure is in place. The methodology is documented. The team is mobilised. We are ready to support partners working on this response, from public-good monitoring to bespoke programme evaluation, from rapid omnibus participation to long-term tracking studies.

In every outbreak we have worked on, the lesson has been the same: speed compounds. Decisions made on Day 7 with imperfect data are usually better than decisions made on Day 30 with perfect data. We are built to deliver on Day 7.

To learn more, discuss commissioned research, or to participate in the Ebola Outbreak Omnibus Survey, contact us.

The post A decade on the front line: what mobile data has taught us about responding to Ebola and other outbreaks appeared first on GeoPoll.

The post Football 2026 Fan Behaviour, Media Consumption & Tournament Predictions appeared first on GeoPoll.

The study was conducted by GeoPoll using its WhatsApp-based data collection mode and end-user mobile app across Kenya between May 6 and 9, 2026. A total of 1,120 respondents participated, providing insights into public awareness and lived experiences of the ongoing fuel shortage in the country.

The study explored key themes including awareness of the shortage, personal and household experiences, daily disruptions, economic effects, coping strategies, perceptions of government response, and expectations for the future.

At a glance

• Awareness of the ongoing fuel shortage in Kenya is very high, with 96% of respondents reporting that they are aware of the situation.
• A significant majority of respondents, 81%, reported having personally experienced difficulty accessing fuel in the past two weeks in Kenya.
• A large majority of respondents, 94%, reported that their household expenses have increased as a result of the fuel shortage in Kenya. Notably, more than half of this group (53%) indicated that the increase has been significant, highlighting the strong financial pressure placed on households.
• Among public transport users, 96% reported an increase in fares in Kenya, with 51% stating that the increase has been significant.
• A notable portion of respondents, 30%, attribute the ongoing fuel shortage in Kenya to geopolitical tensions.
• A slight majority of respondents, 53%, expect the fuel shortage in Kenya to persist for more than a month or potentially develop into a longer-term issue.

Awareness and Personal Experience

Crisis events often reach a point where they move beyond media coverage and become part of everyday lived experience. In the case of the fuel shortage in Kenya, this transition appears to have fully occurred. Awareness is near-universal at 96%, indicating that the issue is widely recognized across the population.

However, awareness alone does not capture the full extent of the situation. The more important indicator is how deeply the shortage is affecting daily routines, and the data shows clear evidence of widespread disruption across mobility, household spending, and transport costs.

A total of 81% of respondents reported having personally experienced difficulties accessing fuel in the past two weeks in Kenya. This indicates that a large majority of those surveyed are not only aware of the situation, but are directly affected by it in their day-to-day lives. Many have faced long queues at petrol stations, been unable to refuel when needed, incurred higher-than-expected costs, or had to adjust their routines due to inconsistent fuel availability.

More than half of respondents (53%) reported that they experienced fuel shortages very often or on multiple occasions each week in Kenya. This indicated that the issue was not occasional, but a recurring disruption that had become part of daily routines for many people, affecting how they moved, worked, and planned their activities.

Only 3% reported that they had never experienced a fuel shortage, highlighting how widespread and persistent the challenge had been across the surveyed population.

The Cost of Getting Around

Kenya is a country constantly in motion, where millions of people rely on public transport each day, including matatus, boda bodas, and tuk-tuks, to get to work, school, markets, and health facilities. When fuel becomes scarce or costly, the impact is not confined to petrol stations; it moves with every journey, affecting passengers, goods, and services across the transport network.

The data clearly reflect this reality. Increased transport costs emerged as the most widely reported impact of the fuel shortage, cited by 81% of respondents.

Impact on Daily Activities

Respondents were asked to select all ways in which the fuel shortage had affected their daily lives. Beyond transport, 45% reported an increase in the cost of goods and services, reflecting the ripple effects of higher logistics and delivery expenses across the supply chain. A quarter (25%) indicated reduced business operations, while 23% experienced commuting delays that disrupted their daily schedules.

Overall, the findings pointed to widespread disruption across everyday economic activity, where most forms of movement and service delivery had become more costly or difficult. Only 2% of respondents reported that the shortage had not affected their daily life.

What Happened to Transport Fares?

More than half, 60% of respondents reported relying primarily on matatus or buses for their daily travel, while 44% used boda bodas. These modes of transport are not occasional alternatives, they form the core of daily mobility for most people. As fuel costs rise, operators typically pass these increases on to passengers, leaving limited alternatives for commuters.

The impact on fares was near-universal. A total of 96% of public transport users reported an increase in fares, with 51% describing the rise as significant. A further 45% noted that fares had increased, though less sharply. Only a small minority, less than 4%, reported no change in transport costs.

96% of public transport users say fares have gone up. Almost no one has been spared.

Household Finances Under Pressure

The combined effect of higher transport costs and rising prices for goods has been clearly reflected in household budgets. When respondents were asked about the overall impact of the fuel shortage on their household expenses, the responses were overwhelmingly consistent.

A total of 94% reported that their household expenses had increased. More than half of these respondents (53%) described the increase as significant rather than marginal. This points to a shift from manageable cost adjustments to more pronounced financial pressure for many households. Only 5% reported no change in their expenses, while just 1% indicated a decrease.

For households already operating under constrained budgets, even moderate increases in daily costs translate into reduced financial flexibility. The breadth of the response suggests that the impact has been widely felt across different segments of the population.

The View From the Petrol Station

The post Voices from the Pump: Kenyan Public Perspectives on the Fuel Shortage Crisis appeared first on GeoPoll.

GeoPoll conducted this survey across Kenya in April 2026 to understand how ordinary people experience the digital security landscape, from awareness of legal protections to the security incidents they’ve personally encountered. Most respondents use the internet multiple times a day, primarily through smartphones. Social media is near-universal. Mobile money platforms like M-Pesa sit at the heart of daily financial life, and, as the data shows, at the heart of fraud exposure too.

• 73% are aware of Kenya’s Data Protection Act (2019), Nearly three in four Kenyans have heard of the Data Protection Act, 2019, a strong result for a law enacted just over five years ago. Awareness is highest among urban,
• 37% Lost money due to a cyber-related incident. More than one in three respondents suffered direct financial loss from a cyber incident over the past year. Mobile money fraud and phishing are the primary vectors. Male respondents are more likely to report losses (40%) than women (34%)
• 90% Interested in learning more about cybersecurity. Nine in ten respondents want to learn more about cybersecurity, a level of demand that is genuinely exceptional and represents a clear mandate for public and private sector education initiatives.
• 69% Very concerned about cybercrime in Kenya. Cybercrime concern is near-universal, with 69% ‘very concerned’ and a further 16% ‘somewhat concerned’ meaning 85% of all respondents express significant worry about the threat.

75% of respondents are uncomfortable sharing personal information online, yet over half regularly share their phone number and email address on digital platforms.

Kenya is online, and it’s mobile-first

Nearly nine in ten respondents access the internet several times a day. The smartphone dominates, and social media is the near-universal digital entry point.

Social media dominates at 88%, consistent with Kenya’s position as one of Africa’s most active social media markets. Email (42%) and online banking (32%) follow, with e-commerce at just 2%, a signal that mobile money platforms have effectively absorbed the transactional role that online retail occupies elsewhere. The smartphone is the gateway to all of this: 79% of respondents cite it as their primary internet device. This is not a new trend but an accelerating one, Kenya’s mobile-first internet economy has been built on the back of sub-$100 Android handsets and competitive mobile data pricing from operators like Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom.

Internet access is intensive rather than occasional. 87% of respondents connect several times daily, which means Kenyan users are continuously exposed to the digital environment,  and to its risks. Understanding cybersecurity for Kenyan users is not about protecting a device that gets used once a week. It is about securing the tool that manages money, communication, business, and social life around the clock.

High DPA awareness, but understanding lags behind

The Data Protection Act, 2019 came into force on 25 November 2019, making Kenya one of the first countries in East Africa to adopt comprehensive data protection legislation modelled on the EU’s GDPR. Enforced by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), the Act gives every Kenyan the right to know what personal data is held about them, how it is used, and the right to have it corrected or deleted. In 2025 alone, Kenyan organisations paid over KES 30 million in compensation to individuals for privacy violations, signalling that enforcement is intensifying.

73% of respondents have heard of Kenya’s Data Protection Act (2019). However, self-reported understanding of how companies use personal data tells a more nuanced story.

That 73% of our respondents have heard of the Act is an encouraging headline. But awareness is not the same as understanding — only 36% say they understand ‘very well’ how companies use their personal data, and 28% say they do not understand it very well at all. This gap between knowing a law exists and understanding its practical implications for one’s own digital behaviour is precisely the space where exploitation happens.

Social media is overwhelmingly the leading source of data protection education at 77%, nearly double news and traditional media (44%). Government campaigns reach only 14%, suggesting official public education efforts have significant room to grow. Among men, DPA awareness is slightly higher at 76% vs. 70% among women, pointing to a modest but meaningful gender gap in formal digital literacy exposure that targeted interventions could address.

Sharing Personal Data Online

Most Kenyans express discomfort sharing personal data online, yet the data they routinely share tells a different story.

There is a striking disconnect between expressed discomfort and actual behaviour in this data. Three quarters of respondents say they are not comfortable sharing personal information online, yet phone numbers (52%) and email addresses (51%) are shared routinely. Photos and videos are shared by 32%. This is not necessarily hypocrisy, it reflects the practical reality that many digital services in Kenya, from ride-hailing to food delivery to mobile banking, require personal data as a condition of use. The discomfort is real, but the trade-off feels unavoidable.

More sensitive categories, location data, national ID numbers, and financial details, are shared by just 13% and 1% respectively. This suggests respondents do draw a meaningful line around their most sensitive identifiers, even if contact details flow freely. The 13% who share location data regularly are particularly exposed, given how precisely location can be used to enable targeted crime.

The high rate of privacy policy reading (56% always read them) is a positive finding. However, research consistently shows a gap between claiming to read policies and actually reading them with comprehension. The true test of engagement with privacy notices is whether people change their behaviour based on what they read, which requires policies that are comprehensible in the first place.

Cybercrime is not a distant threat, it’s personal

The scale of mobile money fraud in Kenya is not just anecdotal, it is structural. Over 30 million Kenyans use M-Pesa regularly, and the platform processes more than $50 billion annually. This ubiquity creates a vast attack surface. According to Techweez, Mobile banking fraud cases surged 87% between 2023 and 2024, driven by SIM-swap schemes, credential theft, and social engineering attacks. Between July and September 2025 alone, Kenya recorded an estimated KES 29.9 billion (approximately US$230 million) lost to cybercrime.

Our survey found that 54% of respondents have experienced mobile money fraud, a figure that places this squarely in the category of endemic risk rather than edge case. A 2021 FinAccess survey similarly found that mobile money users who reported losing money had risen from 8.4% in 2019 to 47.4% by 2021, though that figure includes accidental transfers. What is consistent across data sources is that mobile money fraud in Kenya is pervasive, growing, and deeply tied to everyday financial life.

37% of our respondents have personally lost money to a cyber incident in the past 12 months. Male respondents are more likely to report financial loss (40% vs. 34% for women), which may reflect differences in mobile financial activity, or greater willingness among men to disclose losses. The majority of victims (74%) lost less than KSh 5,000, a meaningful but recoverable sum. However, 6% report losing more than KSh 50,000, representing a significant tail of severe financial harm.

Mobile money fraud demands Kenya-specific responses  54% of respondents report mobile money fraud experience. This is a threat category largely absent from global cybersecurity frameworks, driven by SIM-swap schemes and social engineering that exploit the very platforms underpinning Kenya’s financial inclusion story.

Trust in companies and confidence in Kenya’s data laws

Strong passwords are the most common protective measure at 78%, but the figure that stands out is two-factor authentication at 52%. This is substantially higher than global averages, and almost certainly reflects Kenyan users’ repeated exposure to 2FA through M-Pesa, mobile banking apps, and fintech services. Security habits that emerged out of financial necessity have become more generalised, a rare example of mobile money’s security architecture having positive spillover effects on user behaviour.

At the same time, emerging authentication trends suggest that even these strong habits may continue to evolve. As highlighted in this BBC article on passkeys and the future of authentication, there is a growing global shift away from traditional passwords toward passwordless systems such as passkeys, which are designed to be more secure and resistant to phishing. These technologies build on the same principles that made two-factor authentication successful, layered security and user verification,but aim to remove friction while improving protection. In markets like Kenya, where users are already accustomed to multi-step verification through mobile financial services, the transition to passwordless authentication may be smoother and faster than in regions where such behaviours are less entrenched.

On institutional trust, only 47% of respondents trust companies, either completely or somewhat, to protect their personal data. The largest single group (33%) is neutral, which likely reflects uncertainty rather than confidence. On law effectiveness, 59% view Kenya’s data protection laws as at least somewhat effective, and 36% are sceptical. Notably, a 2025 amendment bill proposed increasing the financial penalties under the DPA from ‘whichever is lower’ to ‘whichever is higher’ for large organisations, which would substantially increase regulatory exposure for non-compliant companies, and may begin to shift public trust if enforcement becomes more visible.

A population ready to learn

90% of respondents expressed interest in learning more about data protection and cybersecurity. This is an extraordinary level of expressed demand, and it translates directly into an opportunity. The question is not whether Kenyans want to be educated on this topic, but whether the education on offer meets them where they are, in the format they prefer, and at the level of practical actionability they need.

Social media leads as the preferred channel at 83%, which aligns with where people are already encountering information about data protection. Campaigns on WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and X that use short-form video, relatable scenarios, and local language are likely to achieve the greatest penetration. TV and radio remain important at 57%, particularly in peri-urban and rural areas where data costs remain a barrier to heavy smartphone use. According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, internet penetration in rural areas still trails urban access significantly, making broadcast media a critical complementary channel.

School education (39%) and workplace training (23%) also feature prominently, suggesting appetite for more structured, credentialed forms of digital literacy education beyond the scroll-and-watch model of social media. This is particularly relevant for policymakers designing Kenya’s long-term digital skills agenda, cybersecurity education that begins in secondary school and is reinforced through employer-led programmes is likely to compound in impact over time in ways that social media campaigns cannot.

Social media is the logical starting point  83% prefer social media campaigns and 77% already learned about data protection through social platforms. Campaigns that meet Kenyans on WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram — in Swahili and English — will have the greatest reach.

Key Takeaways

• Cybercrime exposure is near-universal  61% have experienced phishing, 54% mobile money fraud, 31% account hacking. 75% know someone personally who has been a victim. This is not a marginal risk, it is mainstream.
• The awareness–behaviour gap is real  High DPA awareness and expressed caution about data sharing coexist with widespread sharing of contact details and significant password reuse. Education must move from awareness to actionable behaviour change.
• Mobile money fraud needs tailored policy responses  The scale of mobile money fraud marks Kenya as a distinct threat environment. Generic cybersecurity frameworks are insufficient. Industry-level responses from the Central Bank of Kenya, Safaricom, and telecom operators are needed.
• Demand for education is a genuine opportunity  90% want to learn more. Organisations and platforms that invest in accessible, practical cybersecurity content in local languages will be meeting a clearly stated public need.
• Institutional trust must be earned through enforcement  Only 47% trust companies with their data. As the ODPC steps up enforcement and the DPA amendment bill progresses, visible accountability actions will be essential to rebuild public confidence.

Methodology/About this Survey

This Exclusive Survey was powered by GeoPoll’s AI platform; Tuucho run via the GeoPoll mobile application and Mobile web in Kenya, the sample size was 1,813, composed of random users between 18 and 50. Since the survey was randomly distributed to an and the results are slightly skewed towards younger respondents, and urban residents (59% urban, 24% rural, 17% peri-urban) and gender: 50% female, 50% male. All questions were self-administered via mobile survey in English. Response rates and regional weights are available on request.

The study set out to understand how everyday Kenyan internet users perceive and experience the digital security landscape — covering awareness of Kenya’s Data Protection Act, attitudes toward personal data sharing, the prevalence and financial impact of cyber incidents, trust in companies and government to safeguard data, and appetite for further education on cybersecurity. With Kenya’s mobile-first digital economy making platforms like M-Pesa central to daily financial life, the survey was designed to capture not just general cybersecurity sentiment but the specific threats and behaviours shaping the experience of a population navigating one of Africa’s most dynamic, and most exposed digital environments.

Please get in touch with us to get more details about our capabilities, explore more on various topics in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The post Connected & Concerned Cybersecurity & Data Protection in Kenya Report appeared first on GeoPoll.

The term borrows from traditional survey research, where “enumeration” refers to the act of collecting data from respondents in the field, by phone, or through mobile channels. AI enumeration applies the same function to a new mode of delivery.

For research teams operating at scale across multiple languages and time zones, AI enumeration is one of the most significant methodological shifts since the move from face-to-face interviewing to computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). But like any new method, it works well in some contexts and poorly in others, and understanding the difference is what separates useful adoption from expensive experimentation.

This guide covers what AI enumeration is, how it works, where it adds value, where it falls short, and why research expertise and verified respondent panels remain essential even as the interview itself becomes automated.

How AI enumeration works

At a mechanical level, AI enumeration systems combine three technologies: speech recognition to understand what the respondent says, a large language model to interpret meaning and generate follow-up questions, and text-to-speech to deliver questions in a natural voice.

The AI follows a structured questionnaire, just as a CATI interviewer would, but it can adapt within defined boundaries. If a respondent gives an unclear answer to an open-ended question, the AI can probe for clarification. If a respondent mentions something worth exploring, the AI can branch into a follow-up. And if the respondent speaks a different dialect or code-switches between languages, modern systems can often keep up.

The respondent experience varies. Some AI enumeration deployments use voice over the phone, mirroring traditional CATI. Others use voice through WhatsApp or messaging apps. A few use text-based chat interfaces. The common thread is that the interview feels like a conversation rather than a form.

AI enumeration versus traditional enumeration

Traditional enumeration relies on trained human interviewers. It is proven, flexible, and capable of handling almost any research context, but it is also expensive, slow to scale, and subject to variability between interviewers.

AI enumeration flips several of these tradeoffs. It scales almost instantly, runs consistently across thousands of interviews, and operates in any language the model supports, at any hour, without fatigue. What it gives up, at least for now, is the human judgment that skilled enumerators bring to difficult interviews: reading hesitation, building rapport with reluctant respondents, and knowing when to push and when to step back.

Neither method is universally better. The useful question is which method fits which study, and for many projects the answer is a thoughtful combination of both.

Advantages of AI enumeration

• Cost efficiency at scale. Human enumeration costs scale roughly linearly with sample size. AI enumeration has a higher fixed setup cost but much lower marginal cost per interview, which makes it economical for large samples, tracking studies, and high-frequency research. A study that would require hundreds of call center hours can often be completed in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost.
• Speed to field and speed to data. An AI enumerator can start interviews as soon as the questionnaire is approved and the sample is ready. There is no enumerator training, no briefing, no staffing up for peak periods. Fielding windows that used to take two to three weeks can close in days, and because the AI transcribes and codes as it goes, clean data is available almost immediately after the last interview completes.
• Consistency across interviews. Every respondent hears the same question in the same tone with the same phrasing. Interviewer effects, which are a real and often underdiscussed source of measurement error, are largely eliminated. This matters especially for tracking studies, where even small shifts in enumerator behavior between waves can create noise and bias that look like signals.
• Language and dialect coverage. Multilingual studies have traditionally required recruiting, training, and managing enumerators in each language. AI systems trained on sufficiently large speech datasets can handle dozens of languages, including low-resource languages that are difficult to staff for. This is a particularly meaningful advantage in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, where a single national study might need to run in five or more languages.
• Respondent candor on sensitive topics. There is a growing body of evidence that respondents disclose more openly to AI interviewers on sensitive subjects, including health behaviors, financial status, political attitudes, and experiences of discrimination or violence. The absence of social judgment seems to reduce the performative element of responses that skews sensitive-topic data.
• 24/7 availability. AI enumerators do not have shifts. Respondents in rural areas who are only reachable in the evening, or business owners who can only talk after closing, can be interviewed whenever they are available. This expands the reachable universe and reduces the bias introduced by sampling only people who answer during call center hours.
• Scalability without quality degradation. In traditional enumeration, scaling a study often means hiring less experienced interviewers, which degrades quality at exactly the moment you need it most. AI enumeration holds quality constant regardless of sample size.

Drawbacks and considerations

• Rapport limits. Human enumerators build trust through small cues: warmth, acknowledgment, cultural references, shared language. AI systems are getting better at this, but they still struggle with the kind of rapport that gets a reluctant respondent to open up or a busy executive to stay on the line. For studies where participation depends on rapport, human enumeration is still the better choice.
• Complex probing and narrative elicitation. AI enumerators can probe effectively on structured open-ends, but they might fall short in deep narrative elicitation, especially when not well trained, where the interviewer needs to follow an unexpected thread, understand implicit meaning, or recognize when a respondent is circling back to something they have not yet said. Ethnographic and deeply qualitative work remains firmly in human territory.
• Respondent trust and consent. Respondents have a right to know they are speaking with an AI. Disclosure is both an ethical and, increasingly, a regulatory requirement. Studies need to handle this transparently without suppressing participation.
• Data security and model choice. AI enumeration involves sending the respondent’s speech to speech recognition and language models. The choice of models, where they are hosted, and how respondent data flows through the system are all material questions, particularly for studies involving vulnerable populations or regulated data.

Why research expertise still matters

AI enumeration automates the interview. It does not automate research.

Designing a study that yields valid, useful insights still requires methodological judgment: framing the research question, selecting the appropriate methodology, designing a questionnaire that avoids leading and double-barreled items, setting quotas that reflect population realities, defining weighting schemes that correct for known sample biases, and interpreting results in context. None of this is done by the AI.

If the questionnaire is poorly designed, an AI enumerator will execute it flawlessly and produce flawless garbage. If the sampling frame is biased, running the interviews through AI will produce precise estimates of the wrong quantity.

To get value from AI enumeration, researchers must pair it with genuine research expertise. If you treat AI enumeration as a replacement for research thinking, you will ship studies faster and be wrong faster.

Why a respondent database still matters

The second thing AI enumeration does not solve is the sample.

An AI enumerator needs someone to interview. That means a reachable, representative, profiled, and willing respondent base. Building such a base takes years and requires serious investment in recruitment, verification, profiling, re-engagement, and incentive management. It is not commodity infrastructure, and it cannot be conjured at the moment a study is commissioned.

In regions where traditional sampling frames are incomplete and where reaching specific demographic segments requires deliberate panel construction, the quality of the underlying respondent database largely determines the quality of any study run on top of it. An AI interviewer that calls the wrong people efficiently is not useful.

This is the pattern likely to play out across the industry: AI enumeration will become widely available, but the research buyers who get meaningful results will be the ones working with providers who own and actively maintain the respondent relationships the interviews depend on.

This is where organizations like GeoPoll, which has access to over 300 million mobile subscribers, come in. To provide a diverse enough sample to produce good research.

Best practices for AI-enumerated studies

• Pilot before you scale. Always run a pilot of at least 50 to 100 interviews before a full rollout. Listen to the recordings. Check the transcriptions. Identify the questions where respondents are confused, the probes that are not firing, and the moments where the AI misinterprets an answer. Fix before scaling.
• Design questionnaires for voice. Questionnaires that work on self-complete mobile surveys do not always work for voice. Long question stems, complex scales, and nested skip patterns that are fine for a human enumerator can confuse both the AI and the respondent. Shorter, cleaner, more conversational phrasing produces better results.
• Plan QA before fielding, not after. Decide in advance what proportion of interviews will be reviewed, what flags will trigger review, and who owns the review process. Budget time and cost for it.
• Use hybrid designs deliberately. AI for the scalable, structured portion of the study; human enumerators for the harder segments (rural, elderly, sensitive follow-ups, and qualitative deep dives). The best hybrid designs are intentional about which mode handles which respondent type.
• Be transparent with respondents. Disclose at the start that the interview is being conducted by an AI. Give respondents the option to decline. Respondents who participate under clear consent give more reliable data than those who feel tricked.
• Measure mode effects. If you are transitioning a tracking study from human CATI to AI enumeration, run a bridge study. Mode effects are real and measurable, and pretending they do not exist is how tracking data quietly loses its comparability.

Use cases for AI enumeration

• Large-scale tracking studies. Brand health, political opinion, consumer confidence, and public health tracking studies all benefit from AI enumeration’s consistency and cost efficiency, particularly when they run monthly or quarterly across multiple markets.
• Multilingual research in emerging markets. Studies that span multiple countries or multiple languages within a country, including African markets where staffing enumerators across five or more languages is a recurring operational challenge, can be run more cheaply and consistently with AI enumeration.
• Rapid-turnaround studies. Crisis response research, reaction studies around news events, and tight-deadline commercial studies all benefit from the speed advantages of AI fielding.
• Sensitive-topic research. Studies on health behaviors, financial vulnerability, gender-based violence, and political attitudes can produce more candid data through AI enumeration, though with strong ethical guardrails and clear pathways to human support where relevant.
• Panel recontact and longitudinal work. Reaching existing panel members for follow-up waves is operationally expensive with human enumerators. AI enumeration lowers the cost enough to make more frequent, lighter-touch recontact viable.
• Hard-to-reach schedules. Research with business owners, healthcare workers, farmers during harvest, or parents with young children requires flexibility that fixed call center hours cannot easily provide. AI enumeration’s always-on availability changes what is reachable.

Where AI enumeration is headed

AI enumeration will not replace human enumerators across the board. It will be for specific kinds of work, at specific scales, in specific contexts, while expanding the total volume of research that is economically viable. Integrating AI enumeration into a broader research offering rather than treating it as a standalone product is the current stance.

Powered by the ASR models we have been creating over the last few years using GeoPoll AI Data Streams, GeoPoll is currently running AI enumeration across our own survey platform.  Our focus on multilingual performance in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and on the quality controls that make AI-collected data fit for client use.

If you are thinking about AI enumeration for your research project, or if you would like to discuss a pilot, get in touch with the GeoPoll team.

The post What is AI Enumeration? A Practitioner’s Guide to AI-Led Survey Interviews appeared first on GeoPoll.

Broadcast television and radio remain central to daily life in Tanzania, with the market shaped by distinctive features: a powerful sports-led TV ecosystem, a single evening peak that dwarfs every other viewing window, and a radio dial where three stations account for most of the national listening share.

GeoPoll’s Audience Measurement (GAM) data from January to March 2026 provides a picture of who is watching, who is listening, and when. This report distills the Q1 2026 numbers into the trends that matter for broadcasters, advertisers, and media planners operating in Tanzania.

As you read through this overview, remember that this is a high-level summary of national reach and share for Q1 2026. Weekly and monthly shifts, regional breakdowns, content-level performance, advertising effectiveness studies, and hourly unique-audience analysis are not covered here. For deeper insights, please reach out.

Top TV Stations in Tanzania

Television in Tanzania is a mass-reach medium, and the competitive landscape at the top is tight. The Top 5 stations are separated by only four percentage points on reach, with Azam Two leading by a narrow margin over ITV, the two Azam Sports channels, and TBC1.

Top 10 TV Stations by Reach (January – March 2026)

One of the most striking features of the Tanzanian list is how much of it belongs to a single broadcaster group. Azam Media occupies three of the Top 5 positions on reach (Azam Two, Azam Sports 1, Azam Sports 2) and a fourth in the Top 10. This cluster gives the group an unusually strong position in any national reach calculation and a near-unavoidable presence in sports-led media plans.

TV Viewership by Dayparts

Reach tells us who tuned in over the quarter. Daypart share of viewing tells us when each station was winning. The numbers below represent each station’s share of total Top 10 viewing within the time block.

• Early Morning (6:00 AM – 9:00 AM): Breakfast TV is the most fragmented block of the day. TBC1 leads with 16% share of Top 10 morning viewing, with ITV (15%), Clouds (12%), and Azam Two (11%) close behind. Seven different stations hold between 8% and 16%, which means morning audiences in Tanzania are genuinely split across the dial rather than concentrated on one or two options.
• Afternoon (4:00 PM – 6:00 PM): This is where the Azam Sports effect becomes very clear. Azam Sports 1 commands 37% of Top 10 viewing in this block, and when combined with Azam Sports 2 and SuperSport, sports channels take more than 60% of all Top 10 afternoon viewing. Live football and pre-match programming drive this concentration, and it is one of the most commercially distinct dayparts in the Tanzanian market.
• Prime-Time (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM): This is the single most important commercial block of the day, and it is dominated by three names. Azam Sports 1 takes 20% share, followed by ITV (16%) and Azam Sports 2 (15%). The Azam cluster combined (including Azam Two at 12%) takes roughly 47% of all Top 10 prime-time viewing, which is one of the most concentrated prime-time positions of any East African market.

Weekday Prime-Time Share of Viewing (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM)

Late Night (10:00 PM – Midnight): The sports channels extend their lead into late-night viewing. Azam Sports 1 (29%) and Azam Sports 2 (20%) together account for nearly half of all late-night Top 10 viewing, with Azam Two adding another 16%. Late-night in Tanzania is, effectively, a sports block.

Weekend and Special Programming Trends

Weekends amplify what is already true about weekday viewing in Tanzania: the evening peak becomes even sharper, and the sports channels maintain their structural advantage across the day.

• ITV leads weekend prime-time with 22% share, reflecting the pull of local drama and entertainment programming on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
• The 8:00 PM weekend half-hour is by far the largest viewing window in the week, with total Top 10 audience roughly 1.6× the next-largest weekend half-hour and well above any single weekday moment.
• Morning reach is significantly larger on weekends, with the 6:30 AM block drawing audiences that rival mid-afternoon weekday numbers. This suggests weekend morning content (children’s programming, religious broadcasts, magazine shows) remains a meaningful commercial window.

Top Radio Stations in Tanzania

Radio in Tanzania is concentrated at the top to a degree that is rare in the region. Three stations account for the bulk of national listening, and the drop-off from third to fourth place is the steepest on the chart.

Top 10 Radio Stations by Reach (January – March 2026)

TBC Taifa Radio leads at 47%, followed by Clouds (44%) and Radio Free Africa (38%). The gap to the fourth station, Wasafi FM, is more than 12 percentage points. For national advertisers, this concentration means that the top three stations are effectively must-include for any broad-reach Tanzanian radio plan.

Radio Listenership by Dayparts

Breakfast (6:00 AM – 9:00 AM): The breakfast block is dominated by the top three. TBC Taifa Radio leads with 26% share of Top 10 morning listening, followed by Radio Free Africa (22%) and Clouds (18%). Together, these three stations account for roughly two-thirds of all Top 10 breakfast listening on weekdays.

Weekday Breakfast Share of Listening (6:00 AM – 9:00 AM)

Daytime (9:00 AM – 4:00 PM): Listening levels dip after breakfast but stabilise through the middle of the day, with Clouds holding a particularly strong position in the late-morning and lunchtime blocks. Radio Free Africa also sustains strong midday listening, reflecting loyal audiences who stay tuned through the workday.

Drive-Time (4:00 PM – 7:00 PM): The afternoon drive block tightens the race. TBC Taifa Radio (24%) holds a narrow lead over Clouds (22%) and Radio Free Africa (20%), with Wasafi FM (10%) a clear fourth. The top three are separated by less than five percentage points during drive-time, making it one of the most competitive listening windows of the day.

Evening (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM): The evening sees TBC Taifa Radio and Clouds move essentially level at roughly 26% share each, with Radio Free Africa dropping back to 12%. This is also where Wasafi FM’s 9:00 PM spike shows up, reflecting its entertainment-led evening programming pulling a distinct audience segment.

Weekend Radio Trends

Weekend listening follows a similar shape to weekdays but with a flatter distribution across the day. TBC Taifa Radio remains the weekend leader at breakfast, and Radio Free Africa’s weekend breakfast position strengthens, reflecting the role of weekend talk and religious programming.

Insights from the Q1 2026 Tanzania Media Numbers

A few structural themes emerge from the Tanzanian data:

1. Prime-time has a single peak, and it is unusually sharp. The 8:00 PM half-hour on weekdays is more than 1.5× the size of any other weekday moment, and on weekends it is even larger. Unlike markets with multiple evening peaks, Tanzania concentrates its evening audience into one narrow window. This is an important peak for media plans.
2. Sports is a structural pillar of Tanzanian TV, not a niche category. Azam Sports 1 alone takes more than a third of afternoon viewing and a fifth of prime-time viewing. Any national media plan that excludes sports inventory is effectively excluding a major portion of the available TV audience.
3. Breakfast is bigger than drive-time on radio, by a wide margin. Total Top 10 radio listening at 6:00 AM on weekdays is roughly 4× the level at 5:00 PM. This is a common pattern, but Tanzania’s morning peak is especially concentrated into the 6:00 – 7:00 AM hour. For advertisers, the morning hour is the single most valuable radio block of the day.
4. Radio listening is more concentrated than TV viewing. Three stations account for the majority of national radio listening across every daypart, while TV’s Top 10 is more evenly distributed. Advertisers can build meaningful TV reach across five or six channels, but radio reach in Tanzania requires the top three.
5. Cluster-brand effects matter more here than elsewhere. The Azam cluster’s combined share of prime-time TV viewing (around 47%) is a pattern that does not appear in most other East African markets. For competing broadcasters, advertisers, and media regulators, the shape of the market is not just about individual station performance but about group-level concentration.

GeoPoll Audience Measurement

GeoPoll provides real-time, data-driven insights into media consumption in Tanzania and across more than 120 countries. Whether you need daily audience measurement, on-demand analytics, a campaign effectiveness study, or a custom report covering a specific audience segment or time period, GeoPoll Audience Measurement gives broadcasters, advertisers, and media planners the tools to make informed decisions.

How to access more insights:

• Subscribe for daily TV and radio ratings to track audience behavior in real time
• Request a custom report for any time period or audience segment
• Measure advertising impact and campaign performance
• Analyze viewership trends by content type, daypart, and broadcaster

Get in touch today!

The post The Top TV and Radio Stations in Tanzania – Q1 2026 appeared first on GeoPoll.