Despite the burgeoning improvement in institutional and regulatory frameworks, Nigeria remains one of the most expensive telecommunications market in the world, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigation can authoritatively reveal.
A Nigerian subscriber spend $30 per month on the average (Average revenue per user or ARPU) to make call and it is far more expensive compared to what a subscriber would spend in Egypt, Mauritius, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Morocco, Senegal, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mozambique, Kenya, Zambia or Cameroon.
Average revenue per user in Egypt is about $12.50 while it is about $18.50 in South Africa but overall revenue per user for telecom companies in Africa is $12.50 to $50.
ARPU is a financial performance benchmark in the telecom industry that measures the average monthly revenue generated per customer.
Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) however said that "there is no one average revenue per user for Nigeria. ARPU for MTN is different from that of Glo or Celtel"
But announcing its results for quarter ended March 31, 2008, MTN South Africa, parent company of MTN Nigeria said that Nigeria’s ARPU has remained robust despite decreasing in line with seasonal trends and increased penetration.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek findings coincided with the annual Global Information Technology Report released by World Economic Forum which ranks over 127 countries in the world, the most bottom part of the rankings were dominated by African countries with the most expensive to place a call in being Zimbabwe.
The World Economic Forum, an independent, international organization that strives towards a world-class corporate governance system ranked Nigeria as the 17th most expensive country to place a three minute call in Africa.
Egypt according to the report topped the list in 2007 for being the cheapest country in the world to place a phone call during peak hours.
Experts believe that there is urgent for tariff rebalancing to avoid possible consumers’ outcry especially with declining quality of service.
Nigeria, a country with seven years of historic telephony revolution is caught in the web of high tariff and poor services.
On the other hand, the revolution has netted for Nigeria some $204 million from the 2.5 percent operating levy between 2003 and 2006 by telecommunications operators.
The industry has also attracted about $9.5 billion of investment since 2001 making it the preferred investment destination and Africa's largest and fastest growing market with over 61 million telephone lines.
