The Nigerian Communications Commission has stated that 518,381.89 terabytes of data were used by Nigerian telecom customers in 2022.
This information was provided in the recently published Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report 2022 by the telecom regulator.
This indicated that when compared to the 353,118.89 terabytes consumed in 2021, data consumption in the nation had increased by 47%.
The report states that there were 141.9 million Internet subscriptions across all networks as of December 2021, and there were 154.8 million as of December 2022, a growth of 9.06%.
Along with the rise in subscriptions, which naturally increased data consumption, MTN’s rollout of 5G in the year also played a role in the growth.
Nigerians are spending more on data as a result of the expansion of the 4G network, which offers quicker speed compared to 4G, and allows them to stream high-quality videos online.
As the carriers gradually put out 5G, which offers 100 times the speed of 4G, demand is anticipated to rise even more.
The country’s telecommunications companies also saw an increase in their annual revenue. The report states that N3.8 trillion was the overall income for telecom companies for the year and when compared to the N3.2 trillion reported in 2021, this is an 18.7% rise.
The information also demonstrated the dominance of the mobile network providers, which included MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile. These companies generated 86% of the industry’s income.
The four mobile operators’ combined revenue for the year was N3.3 trillion, while the combined revenue of other participants, such as Internet service providers, value-added service providers, and fixed-wired operators, was N500 billion.
In the meantime, despite an increase in operational costs that was undoubtedly driven by inflation and foreign exchange volatility, telecom businesses cut back on their capital spending for the year.
The operators spent a total of N785.7 billion on CAPEX in 2022, according to industry data. Comparing this to the N1.1 trillion spent in 2021, CAPEX has decreased by 30%.
On the other hand, the enterprises’ operational expenses rose by 17.6% throughout the course of the year.
The operators spent N2 trillion on their operations in 2022 as opposed to N1.7 trillion in 2021, the report claims.
NCC further stated that as of December 2022, there were 222.5 million active subscriptions across all telecom networks, up from 195.4 million in 2021.
This revealed that the operators increased the number of active subscriptions by 13.86%, or 27.1 million, during the year.
“A number of factors, including subscriber loyalty, promotions, seasonal effects, a strong consumer acquisition push, and competitive product offers across all networks, were cited as the causes of the increase in the Operators’ subscriber base.
“The increase in Active Subscription impacted positively on other derived telecom indicators such as Teledensity, Internet Penetration, as well as Broadband Penetration,” NCC stated.
