August 11, 2023/CSL Research

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in its newly released 2022 subscriber/network data annual report, telecommunications operators in the country recorded growth in revenue in 2022. According to the report, the total revenue of telecom companies for the year was N3.8 trillion, an 18.7% increase when compared with N3.2 trillion recorded in 2021.

The data showed the dominance of the mobile network operators comprising MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile as they accounted for 86% of the industry’s revenue. The revenue of the 4 mobile operators for the year was 3.3 trillion, while other players including Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Value Added Service (VAS) providers, and fixed wired operators together recorded N500 billion in revenue.

NCC further disclosed that the number of mobile active subscriptions across the telecom networks increased to 222.5 million as of December 2022.from 195.4 million in 2021. This showed that the operators added 27.1 million subscriptions in the year, a 13.86% increase in active subscriptions year on year.

Also, according to the report, the number of Internet subscriptions across the networks increased to 154.8 million as of December 2022 from 141.9 million as of December 2021, an increase of 9.06%. Consequently, data usage also maintained an upward trend in 2022, increasing by 46.77% to 518,381.78 terrabytes (TB) in 2022 from 353,118.89TB as of December 2021.

The commission attributed the increase in operators subscriber base to a number of reasons which includes subscriber loyalty, promos, seasonal effects, aggressive consumer acquisition drive, and competitive product offerings across all the networks.

According to the commission, the growth in active subscriptions impacted positively on other derived telecom indicators such as teledensity, internet penetration as well as broadband penetration. We believe that the growing shift to a digital economy, increasing smartphone usage, rising digital consciousness, rapid 4G expansion, and the continued rollout of the 5G spectrum indicates that the sector will continue to thrive in 2023.

Click here to read full PDF copy of report