Investigation of Podcast Consumption and Audience Preferences in Abuja, FCT

The global growth of podcasting has reached Nigerian audiences, and Abuja's educated, professionally active population represents a particularly engaged podcast demographic. This study investigated podcast consumption habits and audience preferences in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory. A descriptive survey was conducted among 250 adult podcast consumers in Abuja Municipal and Bwari Area Councils, recruited through online and on-site sampling at co-working spaces, universities, and professional hubs. A structured questionnaire assessed listening frequency, platform preferences, genre preferences, time spent per week, and motivations for podcast consumption. Results showed that 68.4 percent of respondents listened to podcasts at least once weekly, with Spotify (71.6 percent) and Apple Podcasts (39.2 percent) as dominant platforms. Self-improvement and career development content was the most popular genre (67.6 percent), followed by news and current affairs (58.4 percent) and comedy (48.8 percent). Nigerian-produced podcasts were preferred over international productions by 54.8 percent of respondents, particularly for content addressing Nigerian business and social contexts. Commuting and exercise were the most frequent listening contexts. Desire for more professional development content tailored to the Nigerian work environment was cited as a gap by 71.2 percent of respondents. The study recommends that Nigerian podcast producers and advertisers invest in professional development and career guidance content formats, and that Nigerian universities integrate podcast creation into communication arts curricula to develop the local content ecosystem.

Keywords: podcast consumption, audience preferences, Abuja, digital audio, FCT