Nigeria’s Teledensity Soars, Hits 110.09% in Six Years

Nigeria has recorded a steady teledensity growth among telecommunications subscribers in the last six years. This showed a steady growth in subscriber number, until this year when the subscriber number dropped slightly from 155.1 million in January, to 154.1 million in February this year.

Although a recent statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed slight drop in subscriber number in February, which also resulted in slight drop in teledensity from 110.80% in January this year to 110.09% in February this year, the statistics however, showed a steady growth in telecoms subscriber teledensity over the last six years. Teledensity in technical parlance is measured as the total number of active subscribers, calculated in percentage.

According to the statistics obtained from NCC’s website, as at September 2012, teledensity was 76.69%; in October 2012, the figure rose to 78.21%, while in November and December 2012, the teledensity rose to 78.82% and 80.85% respectively.

As at October, November and December 2013, the teledensity rose to 87.06%, 88.39% and 91.15% respectively.

In October, November and December 2014, the teledensity also rose to 96.87%, 97.60% and 99.39% respectively.

In January, February and March 2015, teledensity according to the statistics, rose to 100.59%, 101.85%, and 102.81% respectively. In October, November and December 2016, teledensity rose to 109.65%, 109.96% and 110.38% respectively. As at January 2017, the teledensity rose to 110.80%, but dropped slightly to 110.09% in February this year.

The slight drop in teledensity has been attributed to the slight drop in subscriber number by telecoms analysts. They were of the view that teledensity would continue to have steady growth as demand for connectivity continues to increase.

Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said teledensity has been on the rapid increase since the 2001, when GSM services were rolled out. According to him, before the advent of GSM in 2001, teledensity was at 0.04%, but it grew rapidly to over 100% in 2015 and the growth is unending. He attributed the growth to innovative value added services introduced by telecoms operators since the introduction of GSM in 2001. He said the value added service had contributed immensely to service quality,

despite its current challenges, which he blamed on willful destruction of telecoms infrastructure by those he regarded as social miscreants. Adebayo therefore called on the federal government to declare telecoms infrastructure as national critical infrastructure and do everything possible to protect telecoms facilities across the country. Adebayo who commended the National Assembly for debating the issue of telecoms infrastructure at the floor of the National Assembly, however said the process was becoming too slow. He called on the law makers to expedite action on the issue and declare telecoms facilities as national infrastructure that would provide protection for the facilities, which he said, would further boost teledensity growth across all networks.