The Global System for Mobile communications Association (GSMA), worldwide trade group of mobile operators has identified over $40 billion revenue growth opportunities in Nigeria and five other African countries namely Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa which should be tapped with the release of additional spectrum.

The new study conducted by Deloitte on behalf of GSMA sub-Saharan Africa Mobile observatory states that Nigeria and the five other African countries "face a looming capacity and coverage crunch in terms of available mobile spectrum. The current amount of spectrum to mobile operators in sub-Saharan Africa is amongst the lowest worldwide."

The study said the unavailability of telecoms spectrum for mobile operators to expand network capacity to provide the next generation services on their networks across Nigeria is set to threaten $12.654 billion additional investments inflows and the creation of 9.4 million jobs over the next few years.

Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA said some countries apportion as little as 80MHz, compared to developed markets where allocation for mobile exceeds 500MHz. The combines aggregated effect of the release of the Digital Dividend Spectrum, 2.6GHz and the refarming of 1800MHz would have a positive impact on job creation, and additional 14.9 million jobs and generate a GDP increase of $40 billion for the six countries.