• 9.1m subscribers lose access as data consumption hits 353,118.89TB

TELECOMMUNICATIONS operators, comprising of GSM, Fixed Telephony Operators ( Fixed/ Fixed Wireless); Internet Service Providers ( ISPS); Value Added Service ( VAS); Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing and others earned N3.2 trillion ( N3.24 trillion) in 2021.

Operating cost of these operators was N1.72 trillion, while CAPEX ( domestic investment) stood at N1.12 trillion as at 2021.

The 2021 Subscriber/ Network Data Annual Report, prepared by Policy Competition and Economic Analysis Department of the Nigerian C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Commission ( NCC) released yesterday, disclosed all these.

Specifically, the CAPEX for GSM players was N1.12 trillion, they operated with N1.65 trillion and earned as revenue, N2.77 trillion. The Fixed Wired operators had N60.9 million as domestic investment, operated with N534.16 million and earned N375 billion.

The ISPS’ revenue was N60 billion; CAPEX of N3.6 billion operated with N48.4 billion. For the VAS operators, the CAPEX was N335.8 million; operated with N10.12 billion and earned N32.9 billion.

For Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing players, they spent N266.26 million on domestic investment, operated with N2.32 billion and earned N3.07 billion in revenue. Other players in the sector, according to NCC, earned N2.44 billion, spent N171.47 million on domestic investment and operated with N899.86 million.

The report, which relied on Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) data, disclosed that capital inflow ( FDI) into the telecoms industry in 2021 was approximately $ 417.48 million against $ 942.86 million as at 2019.

According to NCC, subscriber numbers decreased from 204,601,313 in 2020 to 195,463,898 active voice subscriptions at the end of 2020, with a loss of 9,137,415 subscriptions. This represents about 4.46 per cent decline in total subscription within the period under consideration.

The telecoms regulator explained that the decrease in operators’ subscriber base was attributed mainly to the effect of its directive in December 2020 to all GSM operators to suspend the sale and registration of new SIMS, SIM swaps and all porting activities.