Nigeria spent N3.25tn on airtime, data, and other telecommunication services in 2021, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission.
This is a 12.74% increase from the N2.88tn in 2020 and a 31.55% increase from the N2.47tn. Reflecting a sustained increase in the relevance of telecoms services.
In 2021, 173.56 billion minutes of calls made in Nigeria. Indicating a 15.07% increase from the 150.83 billion minutes of calls made in 2020. The number of SMS sent increased by 15.06 per cent from 8.22 billion in 2020 to 9.46 billion in 2021.
The revenue was by operators in GSM, fixed wired, Internet service provision, collocation and infrastructure sharing, and other spaces. GSM operators generated 85.42 % of the total revenue in the telecoms sector. The suspension of sale and registration of new SIMs, SIM swaps, porting activities affected the growth of subscribers in the sector.
This represents about 4.46% decline in total subscription within the period under consideration. The decrease in Operators’ subscriber base was majorly to the effect of the directive from NCC.
According to the NCC, foreign direct investment into the telecoms industry was $417.48m in 2021. Data usage surged in the year by 68.22 per cent from 209,917.40TB in 2020 to 353,118.89TB in 2021.
“In 2021, there was a full blast in online activity. Working from home, an increase in online economic and commercial transactions which were all on telecoms infrastructure. 2021 witnessed an uptake in online activities as people had to use their devices online.
“Data usage and calls increased. The growth might be slow down in 2022 because about 70 million subscribers cannot make calls presently. Perhaps data, yes. But the implementation of the SIM-NIN policy will have its effect.”
-Reuters.
