Nigeria’s
telecom revenue is forecasted to surpass US$12.0
billion in 2013
October 2009
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According to the information released by HOT TELECOM
(www.hottelecom.com) in its latest report “Nigeria
telecom country profile 2009”, Nigeria’s
telecom revenue increased by 29.9% to US$8.4 billion
at the end of 2008, and ‘if the current growth
trend continues, the country’s telecom revenue
should have surpassed US$12.0 billion in 2013’
HOT TELECOM’s president Isabelle Paradis said.
With a population close to 150 million people,
Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest telecom
markets, surpassing South Africa in terms of mobile
subscribers in 2008. Considering its low fixed,
mobile and Internet penetration it still boasts
significant growth potential.
Nigeria’s fixed sector suffered greatly from
the lack of competition as well as fixed to mobile
substitution over the last 2 years. The number of
fixed lines decreased by 17.3% in 2008 to reach
1.3 million and a penetration of 0.9%. In the first
six months of 2009 however the situation improved
considerably, with the number of fixed lines increasing
by 9.8% to 1.4 million. The sector’s development
is almost solely generated by the 15 PTOs which
offer the service mostly over their fixed-wireless
networks. With the increase of competition, it is
expected that the number of fixed lines will increase
by and average of 17.4% over the next 5 years, to
reach 2.9 million and a penetration rate of 1.7%
at the end of 2013.
Nigeria has now outpaced South Africa to emerge
as the largest mobile telecom market in Africa in
2008. It had 66.4 million mobile subscribers at
the end of June 2009, representing a penetration
rate of 44.3%. Mobile connections have soared at
an average growth rate of 89.4% over the past 5
years and now represent 97.9% of all telephone lines
in the country. The average growth in terms of subscribers
is expected to slow to an average rate of 8.8% over
the next 5 years, brining the number of mobile customers
to 95.8 million at the end of 2013. This trend should,
as a result, trigger more intense competition among
the growing array of network operators. The mobile
sector is currently covered by 5 GSM operators and
4 CDMA providers.
At the end of 2008, there were 11.0 million Internet
users and an estimated 1.8 million Internet subscribers.
The advent of competition in the form of PTOs as
well as the introduction of wireless Internet has
significantly stimulated the sector over the last
5 years. Nevertheless, with a penetration as low
as 1.3%, there is ample space for growth in this
sector. The number of Internet subscribers is forecasted
to grow by an average of 10.6% over the next 5 years
to reach 3.0 million and a penetration of 1.8% at
the end of 2013. The number of Internet users is
also expected to have reached 18.2 million at that
time.
Very little data is available when it comes to
Nigeria’s broadband market, however we estimate
the number of broadband customers to have surpassed
250,000 at the end of 2008, representing 13.6% of
the country’s Internet connections. With the
increased popularity of mobile broadband however,
this ratio should have increase to 100.0% by the
end of 2013, with all dial-up accounts having been
completely replaced by broadband.
Find out more in HOT TELECOM’s new Nigeria
country profile report: http://www.hottelecom.com/nigeria-copr.html
