One of the promises that the executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, assured Nigerians, is that transparency will form the bedrock of his leadership, as it will enable a solid foundation in building a resilient, accountable and efficient institution.
According to Maida, "Transparency is key. It is by transparency that we can self-regulate even as regulators. And by so doing, we would be putting ourselves on our toes, which in the long run will drive the Commission forward to achieve our goals of operational excellence."
Indeed, transparency is not just about sharing positive news or milestones, but also about being open and honest about challenges, failures, and lessons learned.
To this end, Maida has follow through with his promise, as the latest industry statistics released by the NCC, was nothing short of that.
To start with, the latest telecommunications statistical indicators released by the regulator, was adjusted to reflect the latest population growth figures and align with international best practices.
According to the Commission, the adjustment which is reflected in the telecom industry statistical reports of September, October, and November 2023 published on the Commission's website, was predicated upon the Nigerian Population Commission (NPC)'s projection of Nigeria's population at 216,783,381, as of 2022, replacing the previously used 2017 projection of 190 million people.
Maida, affirmed the nation's telecom statistical adjustment process as an appropriate step to maintain the integrity of data about the Nigerian telecom industry as collected, collated, and published by the Commission.
He noted that this will also ensure the accurate measurement of the Commission's progress towards attaining increased broadband penetration rates, improved quality of service, and increased population coverage, among other targets set out in the Strategic Plan for the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.
He also said such data provides information for both the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to which Nigeria belongs, and other development agencies as well as the operators, investors, multilateral agencies, and the public.
What the data says
Consistent with Section 89 Subsection 3(d) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (NCA 2003), the Commission is mandated to monitor and report on the state of the Nigerian telecommunications industry, provide statistical analyses and identify industry trends with regard to services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance, etc. with a view to identifying areas where regulatory intervention would be needed.
Findings of the telecom industry statistical reports of September, October, and November 2023 published on the Commission's website, revealed a steady increase in active voice and internet subscriptions, including a drop in teledensity.
Teledensity
Teledensity is defined as the number of active telephone connections per one hundred (100) inhabitants living within an area and is expressed as a percentage figure.
With the consequential adjustment, which is in line with ITU's calculation of teledensity, the nation's teledensity dropped from 115.63 per cent to 102.30 per cent in September.
However, the active voice subscription statistics witnessed a marginal growth from 220,361,186 to 221,769,883 as of September 2023. In October 2023 the industry also experienced a 0.19 per cent growth in Active Voice subscriptions while teledensity stood at 102.49 per cent. In November of the same year, the industry also experienced a 0.46 per cent growth in Active Voice subscriptions. Teledensity stood at 102.97 per cent.
Internet connection
The number of active internet subscribers in Nigeria increased to 162 million in November 2023 across fixed, mobile, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks, the latest telecom industry data has revealed.
The November figure showed a 0.6 per cent gain, compared to the 161.1 million internet subscriptions recorded in October, 2023.
According to NCC data, with 161.5 million users, mobile network companies MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile continued to dominate the internet market, representing 99.6 per cent of the total subscriptions.
On VOIP, the data revealed that operators in that space which include Smile Communications and Ntel accounted for 354,909 internet subscriptions as of November, while other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) accounted for 208,612 internet subscriptions.
On 5G, despite the huge investment in rolling out of 5G, the NCC data disclosed that, 5G subscriptions in the country stood at 0.96 per cent, as of November 2023, which is still low compared to 2G, as about 59.32 per cent subscribers are on 2G.
Meanwhile, the chief executive officer, MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, has disclosed that high cost of mobile phones is the significant challenge hindering digital inclusion in the country.
Since the rollout of 5G technology in 2022, Toriola confirmed the coverage has quadrupled in the country. "5G has been instrumental towards servicing digitization; a lot of people are shifting their consumption from traditional voice and circuit switch services to data services and probably the biggest barrier to that is actually the cost of handsets," he added.
Toriola further stated that while the global demand has led to a reduction in smartphone costs, Nigeria alone might not generate enough demand to bring down prices as quickly. He suggested that local assembling could help reduce production costs and eliminate custom duties, making smartphones more affordable.
On financing solutions, he stressed the importance of aggregate credit scoring history for citizens to finance their mobile devices. "There's quite a number of companies in Africa that are working on that in partnership with us, and while it may take a bit of time for that momentum to be built, our mobile money PSB - MoMo will enable us predict behavioural patterns and credit worthiness," he added.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Broadband penetration
Broadband penetration percentage, which is the summation of counts of total active 3G, 4G & 5G subscriptions stood at 41.87 per cent, as at December 2023, this is as the federal government targets a 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025.
As contained in the latest report, broadband penetration decreased from 48.49 per cent as at February 2023 to 41.87 per cent in December 2023.
To deepen broadband penetration in Nigeria, the chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr. Adebayo Gbenga suggested that there is need to embark on more sensitization and advocacy for state governments' adoption of the harmonized Rate of Way (RoW) charge of N145/Linear Meter approved by the National Economic Council in 2019.
In the same vein, policy advisor and founder, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr Jide Awe told LEADERSHIP there should be more collaboration with operators, if government must achieve broadband targets.
The policy advisor affirmed that the broadband targets set by the federal government is commendable, but to achieve them, there is need for operators to go to the unserved and underserved communities. To encourage players to deploy infrastructure in those areas, however, the federal government must set aside soft loan as incentives, he revealed.
