NCC: Telecoms sector recorded N3.2trn revenue, $417.48m FDI in 2021

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the telecoms sector recorded N3.25 trillion in revenue and $417.48 million of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021.

This was disclosed in a report titled, ‘2021 Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report, released on the commission’s website on Thursday.

According to NCC, the collation of information used in the report was based on the submission received from the telecom service providers for the year ended December 2021.

Analysis by TheCable Index shows that capital expenditure (domestic investment) stood at N1.24 trillion as at the end of 2021, based on submissions from responsive licensees.

While capital flow (foreign direct investment) into the industry in 2021 was approximately $417 million as against $942 million recorded in 2019.

Further analysis shows that Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators alone raked in a total revenue of N2.77 trillion, while fixed-wired operators recorded N375.04 billion.

Similarly, internet service providers raked in N59.99 billion, while VAS providers recorded N32.92 billion.

In the same vein, collocation and infrastructure sharing operators raked in N3.07 billion, while other telecom operators recorded N2.44 billion, amounting to a total of N3.25 trillion revenue generated in 2021.

According to the report, there was a decrease in the number of active voice subcriptions in 2021 when compared to 2020.

“As at December, 2021, total active voice subscriptions for the entire market segments was 195,463,898 as against 204,601,313 recorded as at December, 2020. This indicates a decrease of -4.5 percent in 2021,” the report said.

“The teledensity was 102.40 percent in 2021 as against 107.18 percent recorded in 2020, which indicates a decrease of -4.78 percent in teledensity as at December 2021.”

The number of internet subscribers also decreased from 154.32 million subscriptions as at December 2020, to 141.99 million subscriptions as at December 2021 representing a decline of 8 percent.

The decline in operators’ subscriber base was attributed majorly to the effect of the directive from NCC in December 2020 to all GSM operators to suspend the sale and registration of new SIMs, SIM swaps, and all porting activities following the commission’s audit of subscriber registration database in the country.