Nigeria’s broadband penetration hit 47.3% in 2022

Broadband penetration (BP) percentage, which is the summation of counts of total active 3G, 4G & 5G subscriptions stood at 47.36percent as at December 2022, this is as the federal government targets a 70 percent broadband penetration by 2025.

As contained in the latest report published by Nigerian Communication Commission, the BP increased from 40.88 percent as at December 2021 to 47.36 percent as at December 2022, as broadband subscriptions increased from 78,041,883 in December 2021 to 90,398,960 subscriptions as at December 2022.

According to the Commission, the broadband plan is designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria, a minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas.

It also targets effective coverage for at least 90percent of the Nigerian population by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data.

“The subscriptions indicate that Broadband penetration stood at 47.36 percent as at December 2022 which is in fair progression towards the mid-term broadband target to be met in 2023. The Commission has long exceeded the target of 30 percent penetration as at December 2018 and has begun implementing new strategies to meet the new target of 70 percent Broadband penetration by year 2025 as contained in the new Broadband Plan,” it stated.

Also, the number of active subscribers increased from 195,463,898 in 2021 to 222,571,568 active voice subscriptions as at December 2022.

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

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Also, Nigeria’s Teledensity increased from 102.40 percent in 2021 to 116.60 percent by December 31st 2022.

According to the report, active subscriptions increased by 13.86 percent in the period, indicating that over a tenth of persons per 100 subscribers were connected Year on Year. “The number of internet subscribers increased from 141,971,560 as at December 2021 to 154,847,901 subscriptions as at December 2022 representing an increase of 9.06 percent.

Breakdown of the mobile operator`s subscription showed that MTN; GLO; AIRTEL and EMTS each recorded 89,016,678 (40.06 percent); 60,290,012 (27.13 percent); 60,065,904 (27.03 percent) and 12,852,706 (5.78 percent) subscribers respectively.

The report also indicated an increase in the number of internet subscribers, from 141,971,560 subscriptions as at December 2021 to 154,847,901 subscriptions as at December 2022. This represents an increase of 9.06 percent.

“There was an increase in the volume of data consumed in the year end December 2022 when compared with the year-end December 2021. The total volume of data consumed by subscribers increased to 518,381.78TB as at December 2022 from 353,118.89TB as at December 2021. This represents an increase of 46.77% in data consumption within the period.

“Telecoms industry contribution to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Products increased from 12.61 percent in the Fourth Quarter, 2021 to 13.55 percent in the Fourth Quarter of 2022,” it stated.