Nigeria Mobile Market to Hit 168n By 2017- Informa & Telecom

Nigeria’s mobile subscription which recorded a milestone 107.3 million by end of September 2012 is expected to reach a threshold 168.99 million by 2017 that is five years from now according to the latest industry statistics released by Informa & Telecom, the UK based industry analysts.

Nigeria’s ICT sector was recently acclaimed as the fastest growing sector of the country’s economy with a 30 per cent growth in 2012; contributing 5.83 per cent to the nation’s GDP.

Teledensity is now 76.69 by end of Q3 2012.

Informa & Telecom noted that the overall African market is expected to reach climax 761 by end of 2012 is expected to cross the one billion milestone by 2017.

Nigeria also has one of the biggest 3G network roll-out in the continent with a number of operators moving 3.7G which are also major drivers of broadband penetration.

Commenting  on the release ,  Dr. Samsudeen Kayode, senior economics lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that “Nigeria’s mobile market will continue to flourish and drive foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into the economy for a long time to come”

Kayode attributed the steady growth in the telecom market to the dearth in telecommunications infrastructure in the country.

Nigeria currently hosts four major undersea fibre cables; unfortunately their presence is not felt outside of the commercial capital, Lagos due operators’ inability to link them to the hinterlands. Most of the regions outside Lagos are under-served by broadband connectivity.

Most mobile subscribers depend on smartphones for internet connections due to long years of neglect of the telecom sector by successive administrations in the country.

“I am hopeful that the projected 168 million could be surpassed before 2017,” said Dr. Kayode.

He noted that the country’s market has been grossly undermined by Western economic analysts because of a lack of proper grasp of the Nigerian situation.

Early in the year a Nigeria operator, Globacom (Glo mobile) was the first to test run LTE but has failed to give further insight into its official commercial take-off date. It also currently operates a 3G plus network across the country.

Others like MTN, Airtel and Etisalat also operate either 3.5G or 3.7G networks to drive mobile data services.

MTN leads the market with over 42 million subscribers controlling market share by over 46 per cent.  Glo mobile and Airtel have 22 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Kayode attributed the growth to the huge youth market, which he also sees as driving the smartphone segment.

“Population figures indicate that people under- 40 are more than those above 40 years, so you can understand that the Nigerian market has more than enough capacity to grow exponentially. We will see this market trend continue for another 10 another” the University don stated