Foreign investments in the telecom sector increased by 325.12% in 2022 as a result of increased 4G and 5G rollout. According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ data on capital imports, the telecom industry brought in $456.82 million in 2022 as opposed to $107.46 million in 2021.
This is because despite the difficult economic climate in the nation, the sector has maintained its appeal to foreign investors. In order to put out 5G in 2022, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa stated that they would invest N613.13 billion.
From the N536.91bn spent in 2021, the two telcos boosted their network investments by 14.19% annually.
MTN stated in a statement about the launch of its network, “Capital expenditure was N504.3bn, up 23.5 percent, due to acceleration of coverage expansion, focused on the 4G and 5G networks and our rural areas. 4G accounted for approximately 76 per cent of the total sites deployed during the year.
“With the continued shift to digital technologies and a digital economy, 5G — which was recently launched in Nigeria — is expected to dominate and further increase foreign investments in the sector.
GSMA, the global body for telcos, recently stated that the 5G rollout in 10 top cities in the country would cost telcos $500m as they will need to build 6,000 base stations.