Nigeria’s telecom market attracts least investment in almost 10 years

The Nigerian telecom sector generated the lowest amount of capital investment in 2021, in almost 10 years. It also represents a consistent decline since 2020.

A report released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the total amount of investment the sector attracted in 2021 stood at $107.5 million dollars, against $913.8 million in 2013.

The report shows that the sector saw the highest investment in 2019 with the year ending with a total of $944.1 million, representing the most investment in almost a decade.

Looking at the year on year (YoY) analysis from 2013, the report disclosed that the sector attracted $913. 8 million in 2013, $934.3 million in 2014, $938.1 million in 2015, $931.2 million in 2016, $544.6 million in 2017, $114.4 million in 2018, 944.1 million in 2019, $417.5 million in 2020 and $107.5 in 2021 when it was lastly updated by NBS.

According to YoY analysis of the report, 2013 to 2017 generated more investment than the recent years excluding 2019, clocking an overall sum of $4.27 billion in an interval of 5 years.

On the other hand, 2018, 2020, and 2021 saw the least investment attracting $114.4m, 417.5m, and 107.5m respectively, which represents $639.4m investment in three years.

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While the statistics show that 2013 to 2015 maintains a consecutive increase within the years, other years from 2016 experienced a fluctuating outcome while declining to 2021, except 2019 which records the highest.

However, comparing the $913.8m in 2013, to $107.5 in 2021, as shown in NBS data, represents a loss of $806.3m within the specified period.

Similarly, the Month on Month (MoM) analysis of the previous year 2021, which remains the latest data released on investment by NBS shows that the sector attracted $56.28 million in Q1 of 2021, $0.34 in Q2, $50. 84 in Q3, while the Q4 shows blank, and this figure represents the $107.5m investment attracted in 2021, which marks the least compared to other years in almost a decade.

The market saw an increased growth from the first four years from 2013 to 2016 ranging from 913.8 million, 934.3 million, 938.1 million, 931.2 million respectively, before having a turndown to 544.6m in 2017, giving a total loss of almost 386.6m compared to 2016.

Following the decline in 2017, the sector marked its first time of seeing a smaller amount of investments in 2018, with the investment standing at $114.4 million which stamps it the second least amount of investments attracted by the sector over the years, after 2021.

Generally, the telecom sector, adding all years together from 2013 to 2021 has attracted $5.84 billion worth of investment for the market.