Emma Okonji
Despite harsh operating environment, telecom operators comprising of GSM operators, fixed wired operators, internet service providers (ISPs), value added service (VAS) operators, collocation and infrastructure sharing operators, as well as other telecoms operators, recorded N3.247 trillion revenue, with total operating cost of N1.7 trillion in 2021.
According to the statistics posted yesterday on the official website of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulator said the collation was based on the submission it received from the telecom service providers for the year ended December 2021.
It also showed that capital expenditure (domestic investment) stood at N1, 24,116,990,000.00 as at the end of 2021, based on submissions from responsive licensees.
According to the statistics, capital flow (foreign direct investment) into the Nigerian telecoms industry in 2021 was approximately $417 billion as against $942 million it was in 2019.
A breakdown of the figures showed that Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators alone raked in a total revenue of N2.7 trillion, while fixed wired operators recorded N375 billion. Similarly, internet service providers raked in N59 billion, while VAS providers recorded N32 billion. In the same vein, collocation and infrastructure sharing operators raked in N3 billion, while other telecom operators recorded N2.44 billion, amounting to a total of N3.247 trillion revenue generation in 2021.
The data showed that a total of 49, 579 towers were recorded from mobile and fixed operators as well as collocation and infrastructure companies. The operators also reported a total number of 38,288 Base Stations.
iMicrowave coverage in 2021, at 290,940.69km, which covered the mobile and fixed Operators.
Furthermore, the data showed that mobile, fixed and other operators recorded a total number of 99 gateways in use in the industry as at December 2021, while fiber optics deployment stood at 86,057km, which included terrestrial fiber and submarine cable as at December 2021.
The NCC figures also showed that telecom subscriber number decreased from 204,601,313 in 2020, to 195,463,898 active voice subscriptions as at December 2021, which was a loss of 9,137,415 subscriptions.
This represented about 4.46 per cent decline in total subscription within the period under consideration.
However, the NCC attributed the decrease in operators’ subscriber base, majorly to the effect of the directive from the Commission in December 2020 to all GSM operators to suspend the sale and registration of new SIMs, SIM swaps and all porting activities.
The objective of the audit exercise was to verify and ensure compliance by Mobile Network Operators with the set quality standards and requirements of SIM Card registration as issued by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Commission.
In the area of teledensity, the data showed that Nigeria`s teledensity decreased from 107.18 per cent as at December 2020 to 102.40 per cent by December 31st 2021.
The number of internet subscribers also decreased from 154,318,925 subscriptions as at December 2020, to 141,994,285 subscriptions as at December 2021 representing a decline of 8 per cent.
Broadband penetration also decreased from 45.02 per cent as at December 2020 to 40.88 per cent as at December, 2021. Similarly, Broadband subscriptions decreased from 85,941,222 subscriptions in December 2020 to 78,041,883 subscriptions as at December 2021.
The statistics however showed an increase in internet usage as there was an increase in the volume of data consumed in the year ended December 2021 when compared with the year ended December 2020.
The total volume of data consumed by subscribers increased to 353,118.89TB as at December 2021 from 209,917.40TB as at December 2020. This represents an increase of 68.2 per cent in data consumption within the period.
Telecom contribution Gross Domestic Products increased from 12.45 per cent in the fourth quarter, 2020 to 12.61 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021, the NCC figures further revealed.
