Nigerian telecom. Image by PUNCH
Nigerians Spend N2.6tn On Data And Airtime.
Nigerian telecom users spent a minimum of N2.59tn on airtime and data in the first nine months of 2023.
This is in line with what we can see in the financial accounts of both MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa. When compared to the N1.95tn earned by the two telecoms over the same time in 2022, this represents an increase of 32.57%.
An uptick in data subscribers and Airtel’s efforts to devalue the naira were factors in the expansion of voice and data venues. Airtel amassed $1.41 billion in revenue from airtime and data in the initial nine months of 2022.
At the exchange rate of N461/$ that was in effect at the time, it was worth N647.71bn.
These two revenue streams brought in $1.29 billion for the business over the same time in 2023. It was equivalent to N1.003tn when translated using the currency rate of N777/$ at that time.
Total revenue growth at MTN is being driven, in large part, by the company’s expanding data revenues.
Internet use has been on the rise in the nation, as seen by the 36.36 percent year-on-year growth in data sales and the 10.64 percent growth in voice revenues.
Data revenue surged by 36.4% on higher consumption and data conversion in new and existing base,” MTN commented on this gain.
Data consumption on the company’s network increased by 29.1 percent over the reviewed period, according to the corporation.
The data usage per user increased by 29.1 percent to 8.6 GB, and the number of smartphones on our network by 7.6 percent, bringing smartphone penetration to 53.4 percent, up 1.4 percentage points year-over-year.
The 4G network accounted for 83.7% of the overall traffic, which was an increase of 5.2 percentage points year over year, and the data traffic increased by 46.3% as a result.
Data use per client increased to 5.9 GB per month according to Airtel. Data customer base increase of 17.4% and data ARPU growth of 12.3% drove data revenue growth of 29.3% in constant currency, according to the corporation.
From 4.8 GB in the previous period to 5.9 GB in the current one, data usage per customer jumped by 23.8%. Nearly all of our sites now provide 4G services, thanks to our ongoing 4G network deployment.
As a result of more people using the Internet to watch videos, telecom users paid N3.86tn on telecom services in 2022. Compared to the N3.25tn spent in 2021, this represented an increase of 18.74%.
The country’s data usage increased from 353,118.89TB in 2021 to 518,381.78TB in 2022, a 46.77 percent growth.
According to experts, data consumption is set to skyrocket and will be the next big thing in the telecom industry.
In the next years, data revenues will surpass speech revenues, according to many observers.
The World Bank has revealed that the expansion of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry was driven by rising subscriber numbers and increased usage of data services by both families and enterprises.
As service providers across the continent continue to invest in 4G networks and migrate customers from 2G and 3G, the Ericsson Mobility Report (June 2023) predicted that Sub-Saharan Africa would have the highest growth in total mobile data traffic, with an annual increase of 37% from 2022 to 2028.
“During the period, smartphone traffic is expected to quadruple, leading to a total of 19 GB of data used per active smartphone per month in 2028.”