Telecom sector grows mobile subscription to 190.8m

By Prince Osuagwu, Hi-Tech Editor & Elizabeth Adegbesan

The Nigerian telecom sector continued to show indications of sustaining the economy with impressive growth in mobile voice and data subscriptions in the month of April.

While telecoms subscriptions hit the 190 million mark, data subscription grew to 138.3 million, representing a 2.0 percent growth from March.

Mobile subscription reached 190,806,067; representing a marginal increase by 0.80 per cent or 1,523,271 as against the 189,282,796 recorded during the same period in 2019.

Statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, shows there was a proportionate increase in the number of teledensity, which is measured by the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area and is expressed as a percentage figure.

The report shows the data segment had a sharp drop in the number inward porting from 16,046 in March 2020, to 7,148 in April.

NCC said in June 2019, the number of subscribers was 174,024,116 with a teledensity of 91.17 per cent, but the figure rose in July to 174,950,011 with a teledensity of 91.65 per cent.

In  August 2019, the figure rose to 176,897,879 with a teledensity of 92.67 per cent and moved up again in September to 179,176,930 with a teledensity of 93.87 per cent.

In October 2019 it moved to 180,386,316 with a teledensity of 94.50 per cent and in November 2019, telecoms subscriptions rose again to 182.7 million with a teledensity of 95.7 per cent.

In December 2019, it reached 184,699,409 with a teledensity of 96.76 per cent, before rising to 186,023,609 in January, with a teledensity of 97.45 per cent; 187,435,841 in February, with a teledensity of 98.19 per cent.

The statistics say the total number of subscribers that ported from one network to another, in search of better service quality, decreased. Airtel had only 2,246 incoming porting in April this year, as against 5,594 incoming porting it had in March. 9Mobile, which recorded the highest number of incoming porting, had a total of 3,829 porting subscribers in April as against 8,225 incoming porting it had in March.

MTN had only 985 incoming porting in April as against 1,965 in March while Globacom, which recorded the least number of porting, had only 88 incoming porting in April as against 262 the previous month.

Meanwhile, as digital inclusion gains ground, internet subscriptions in Nigeria has also increased to over 138.3million in the month of April.

Latest statistics puts internet subscriptions for the month April, 2020 at 138,342,770.

This shows an increase of 2,510,628 new internet users as against 135,832,142 recorded for the month of March, 2020.

Further analysis revealed Nigeria’s telecommunication industry has recorded an overall increase of 18,363,340 internet subscribers in one year when compared to 119,506,430 recorded over the same period in 2019.

For the period under review, the data revealed that MTN, Glo, Airtel gained new internet subscribers amounting to 2,812,753 while 9mobile lose 302,125 internet users from their already existing internet subscribers.

According to the data, MTN gained 698,593 new internet users for the month under review, thereby increasing its subscribers to 57,980,716 as against 57,282,123 recorded in March, 2020.

On its part, Globacom saw an increase of 2,072,369 new internet users, increasing its subscribers to 35,943,825 as against 33,871,456 recorded in March, 2020.

This is also as Airtel recorded 41,791 new internet subscribers, increasing its subscription to 36,869,468 for the month of April 2020 as against 36,827,677 subscribers in March 2020.

The data however revealed that 9mobile lost 302,125 of its internet users, putting its subscribers at 7,459,943 as against 7,762,068 recorded for the month of March 2020.

Broadband penetration in Nigeria was placed at 39.58% for the month of April 2020 as against 39.90% recorded for the month of March 2020.