Nigerian telecom industry has been referred to as the fastest growing market in Africa, a reputation she has earned for opening up the sector in 2001.
Before the burgeoning revolution, the now troubled Nigerian Telecommunication (NITEL) was dominant operator in the market with subscribers of about 500,000 for a population of 140 million.
The deregulation ushered in telecom players like MTN, Glo Mobile, Zain formerly Celtel, Etisalat, Visafone, Multilinks, Starcomm and Zoom formerly Reltel.
All these players have over 64.16 subscribers as at January 2009 and it is not showing any signs of slowing down. According to reports, with mobile penetration of 42 per cent, revenue will increase to $11.14billion by 2013 with forecasted annual increase of 5.7 per cent.
It has been an enchanting story of rise and rise of the sector.
But despite sweet story, the industry is still plagued by problems of infrastructure, large market, economic sabotage, interconnectivity, inadequate base stations, quality of service, tariff, frequency issues and many more.
That is why the call by Mr. Mohammed Jameel, group chief operating officer of Globacom, for continuous reinvestment of earnings by operators in order to build a stable and extensive network in the country is very timely.
We agree with Jameel that operators would be able to overcome the huge challenge of network expansion if they reinvest their profit in developing their network infrastructure.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek also agree that financing new technology upgrades and overhaul of existing technology are some of the major challenges in giving customers the best services.
It is important like Jameel, pointed out for operators to plan ahead and inject fresh capital, including re-investing earnings into the network.
Globacom has built its operations on this model by continuously ploughing back of earning by the local network and that has seen it grow and expand at a faster rate.
We encourage other operators to toe the Globacom’s model while also pursuing other cost reduction strategies like infrastructure sharing, use of interconnect clearing houses and outsourcing.
On the long run, investing additional monies into the country’s network infrastructure will help modernize existing equipment and prepare Nigeria for the future.
