….N3.247trn revenue
The total operating cost of the Nigerian Telecom industry for the fiscal year 2021 has been put at N1.7 trillion. The capital expenditure also stood at N1.28 trillion.
However, the overall revenue realised for the period under review was put at N3.247 trillion according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
The statistics posted yesterday on the official website of the regulator said the collation was based on the submission it received from the telecom service providers for the year ended December 2021.
In a unit by unit breakdown of the figures as shown by statistics, it revealed that Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators made a total revenue of N2.7 trillion, internet service providers N59 billion, VAS providers N32 billion, while fixed wired operators made N375 billion.
Collocation and infrastructure sharing operators realised N3 billion. Other telecom operators made N2.44 billion.
It also revealed 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.
About $417 billion in form of foreign direct investment was realised in 2021 as against $942 million it was in 2019.
Also, 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 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.
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.
However, 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.
In the area of teledensity, the data showed that Nigeria`s teledensity decreased from 107.18 percent as of December 2020 to 102.40 percent 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 percent.
Broadband penetration also decreased from 45.02 percent as at December 2020 to 40.88 percent 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.
There was an increase in internet usage because there was an increase in the volume of data consumed in the year ended December 2021 compared to 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 percent in data consumption within the period.
Telecom contribution Gross Domestic Products increased from 12.45 percent in the fourth quarter, of 2020 to 12.61 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Olusola Bello
