By Martin Ekpeke
The year 2019 has come and gone, but a quick check reminds us of some impressive facts and figures, which can serve as indicators that 2020 and beyond, the Nigerian telecom industry is on the right footing to ultimately boost the country’s economy.
It is safe to assume 2019 was an eventful year as the industry remained consistent in recording greater feats. Thanks to the regulator; the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which has been anchored by Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta in the last four years.
Here are some facts and figures to ponder
- Telecom’s contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP) for the 1st Quarter and 2nd Quarter of 2019 stood at 10.11 percent and 11.39 percent respectively.
- General Information and Communication Technology (ICT) contribution to GDP increased to 13.8 percent.
- Active mobile voice subscribers increased from 174,012,136 in January 2019 to 180,386,316 at the end of October 2019
- Teledensity increased to 94.50 percent
- Internet subscribers increased from 114,306,598 to 123,559,596 in 2019
- Broadband penetration increased from 32.34 percent (indicating 61,732,130 Nigerians on 3G and 4G networks) to 37.87% (indicating 72,289,389 on 3G and 4G networks) between January and October 2019.
- Mobile Number Portability (MNP) recorded 110, 500 porting between January 2019 and October 2019, as against 71, 723 subscribers who ported their lines between the same 10-month period in 2018.
- NCC received a total of 19,841 complaints from telecoms consumers across its various consumer complaints channels.
- The Commission successfully resolved 17,851, representing a 90 percent success rate of consumer complaints resolution in 2019.
- Exposure to unsolicited text messages by telecom consumers declined drastically through the popularisation by the Commission and the resultant activation of the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) Short Code 2442 facility by the subscribers. Thus, a total of 22,356, 919 subscribers have now activated the DND service either fully or partially.
- A new National Broadband Plan Committee was inaugurated to come up with the new broadband target for 2020-2025.