Nigeria continues to see the fastest telecom growth rates in Africa. This was further confirmed by a report that suggested the country will see a whopping 182 million subscriber base before 2020. The news is both positive and startling given that Nigeria’s current total population sits at around 181.6 million.
This projection is according to the findings of Pyramid Research, a company that provides international market analysis and consulting services to the communications industry. The report says the Nigerian telecommunications market is expected to generate $10.9 billion in 2019, up from a total of $9.2 billion in 2013. Although growth in the market will be slightly reduced in 2015 as the market recovers from the large number of fixed-line disconnections, the long-term growth of the telecoms sector will likely not be affected as the telecoms market will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2 per cent over the next five years, with mobile data leading the party at a 16 percent increase till 2019. “Political instability and low oil prices have led to a depreciation of the Naira against the US Dollar, but the telecommunications market will remain an integral part of the country’s efforts to diversify its sources of growth.
Other countries in Africa are likely to follow Nigeria when it comes to mobile technology developments. The increasing demand for mobile data will offer service providers, as well as new entrants to the market, ample opportunity to test and grow their service offerings in Nigeria,” says Severin Luebke, an Analyst at Pyramid Research. Despite the prevailing uncertainties caused by recent currency devaluations, the Nigerian telecommunications market still offers strong growth rates of around 6.8 per cent per year for the period between 2014 and 2019. With 182 million subscribers, the country will remain the biggest market for mobile subscription on the continent.
In another telecommunications related development, the Nigerian Federal Government has revealed its intentions to connect some 1.6 million Nigerians in rural communities to various Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platforms before the end of the year. In a quest to facilitate this, the government will complete the set up of 158 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) sites currently being constructed through the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). The USPF is an initiative from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) set-up to support the extension of telecommunications services to unserved or underserved regions within Nigeria; it achieves this aim by providing multiple subsidies to telco operators willing to set up in such target regions.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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