The telecommunications sector has enormously contributed to the Nigerian economy in the last decade. The adoption of mobile phones and internet for easier banking services, communication, and access to e-learning platforms, among others, have grossly shaped lives and businesses of Nigerians. According to a report from Twinpine in 2016, the number of unique mobile lines (any type of handset) had increased to 74.7 million, mobile penetration (unique users against the then estimated population of 184 million) was at 40 per cent while smartphone had only gained 30 per cent penetration in the country.
A report from the Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA) showed that the number of unique mobile lines had jumped by 30.52 per cent in 2 years to 97.5 million in 2018; raising the mobile penetration to 49 per cent and smartphone adoption to 36 per cent penetration in the country (over 53 million users).
Access to mobile broadband continued to be on the increase as 52 per cent (projected to reduce to 5 per cent in 2025) of mobile users in Nigeria have access to the second-generation GSM network (2G) in 2018, and 44 per cent (projected to increase to 70 per cent in 2025) have access to the third Generation Partner Project (3G) network in the same year.
Nigeria lags regional peer to peer (P2P) fourth-generation wireless network (4G) compared to some African countries like Angola, Kenya and South Africa to mention but few; as only 4 per cent of users have access to 4G. With this poor accessibility to 4G broadband, it may take Nigeria a while to adopt 5G network which is the next (fifth) generation of internet connectivity, offering even faster speed and more reliable connection than ever before.
Mobile application has given more Nigerians access to the internet than any other technology. It has become the primary platform for creating, distributing and consuming digital content and services across multiple sectors.
“Smartphone brands that rate low in the Nigerian market”, a brief from Businessday Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) in 2018 showed that a massive 82.22 per cent of active social media users frequent Facebook, Twitter, 6.39 per cent; Pinterest, 6.1 per cent; Youtube, 2.71 per cent; Instagram, 1.62 per cent and Google+, 0.35 per cent among others. As at 15th of October 2019, the top ten mobile applications ranked by usage in Nigeria from top to least by Similarweb are Whatsapp, Xender, Facebook Lite, Wish, Opera Mini, Jumia Online Shopping, Likee, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Facebook.
The correlation between advances in mobile technology and its impact has consistently been a direct and positive relationship. This marked effect is evident in daily business life as it enhances overall activities of the economy as well as promotes inclusive growth. In 2017, the mobile ecosystem added about $21 billion representing 5.5 per cent to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product ( GDP), created about 500,000 direct and indirect jobs and contributed $1.8 billion tax representing 16 per cent to government tax revenue. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector alone grew from its negative territory of 1 per cent in 2017 and by 9.7 per cent in 2018—the second fastest!
In 2018, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) stated that the number of active mobile phone lines in Nigeria rose to 146 million. As a result of the huge market, telecoms operators and internet service providers are on their toes to consistently deliver services at relatively cheap prices. However, the tariff competition among service providers on voice and internet subscriptions oscillates the sectoral revenue.
In the first two quarters of 2019, the ICT sector recorded growth in the number of active voice subscribers—, that is, it grew by 7.21 per cent and 7.41 per cent in first quarter ( Q1) and second quarter ( Q2) 2019 respectively compared to the 162.03 million subscribers in Q4 2018. Telecoms data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that a total of 173.71 million subscribers were active on voice in Q1 2019. This further increased to 174.04 million active subscribers in Q2 2019; representing 0.19 per cent increase from Q1 2019. The Q2 subscriber base also accounted for over 87 per cent penetration rate.
The analysis of the active internet subscription in the review period showed that the sector recorded 18.51 per cent and 12.36 per cent increase from Q4 2018 subscriber base (103.51 million) to 122.67 million active internet subscribers in Q1 2019 and 116.31 million active internet subscribers in Q2 2019 respectively. However, the number of active internet subscribers was down by 5.19 per cent from Q1 to Q2i n 2019.
On a state by state evaluation of active voice subscriptions in Q2 2019, it was evident that Lagos state had the highest number of subscribers to the tune of 22.61 million ( 13 per cent of the country’s); followed by Ogun with 10.37 million subscriptions; Kano, 10.07 million; Oyo, 8.94 million and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) amassed 7.80 million active voice subscriptions. However, Bayelsa State which recorded 1.26 million subscribers, Ebonyi, 1.63 million; Ekiti, 1.63 million; Yobe, 1.95 million and Gombe with 2.10 million voice subscribers had the least number of active voice subscription base in Q2 2019.
Similarly, in Q2 2019, based on statewide evaluation of active internet subscriptions, Lagos State had the highest number of subscribers totalled 16.48 million, followed by Ogun, 7.45 million; Kano, 6.85 million; Oyo, 6.22 million and FCT with 5.53 million subscribers. Quite to the contrary, the least number of active internet subscriptions were recorded in Bayelsa with 922,460 subscribers; Ebonyi, 1.10 million; Ekiti, 1.21 million; Yobe, 1.32 million and Zamafara with 1.45 million subscribers.
Data from NCC on market share by operator as at August 2019 showed that MTN Nigeria leads the pack with 37.20 per cent share; Airtel with 27.13 per cent, Globacom, 26.76 per cent; 9Mobile, 9 per cent and Visafone had a market share of 0.07 per cent.
