Nigeria Grows Teledensity by 19.1% In One Year
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has pegged teledensity growth in the nation’s telecommunication sector at 120 per cent in November, increasing by 2.76 per cent from October. Statistics released by the commission, which confirmed these figures, put telecom’s service users at 169.1 million.
The breakdown of the statistics showed that the GSM operators, that is, the quartet of MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9Mobile, grew their subscription bases by 3.86 million new subscribers. As at October, they serviced 164.8 million, but it increased to 168.7 million in the month under review.
By so doing, MTN with 66.9 million customers, now control 40 per cent market share. Globacom bounced back in November, with 43.3 million users and 26 per cent hold of the market. India’s Bharti Airtel, trading as Airtel in Nigeria has 25 per cent market share and 43.1 million users. 9Mobile maintained nine per cent market share and provides services to 15.4 million subscribers.
To complete the active subscribers’ list for November, NCC put CDMA users at 124, 815; fixed wired/wireless users at 135,696 and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscribers at 115,314.
Internet subscription grew from 107,547,723 in October 2018 to 108,897,679 in November 2018.The commission put total active broadband subscription on 3G and 4G platforms as at November at 58.9 million, while penetration is 30.9 per cent.
The telecom’s regulator put contributions of telecommunication and information services to GDP from Q1 – Q3 2018 at N4.7 trillion, according to figures gotten from the National Bureau of Statistics. NCC, which said in the last quarter (Q3, 2018) the amount stood at N1.5 trillion, disclosed that telecommunication and information services sector grew by 14.7 per cent from Q1, 2017 – Q3, 2018.
In a related development, MTN shares rose by 8 per cent yesterday on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) after it settled a row with Nigeria’s Central Bank for a fraction of the $8.1 billion it had threatened to cost.
