Telecom Companies Post N2.268trillion Revenue Growth

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) posted a total revenue of N2.268trillion as at December 2020, as against N2.019trillion recorded in the preceding year, a recent report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has shown.

According to the data, it reflects an increase of 12.33 percent of total revenue from the MNOs while their total operating cost (OPEX) declined from N1.415trillion in 2019 to N1.395trillion at the end of last year.

This, NCC said, showed a slight decline (reduction in operational cost) of 1.46 percent from the figures reported in 2019. The reduction in operating cost may have been as a result of investment in capital expenditures (CAPEX) that are more efficient, it said.

According to the Commission’s 2020 Subscriber/Network Data Report prepared by its Policy Competition and Economic Analysis Department, the total value of assets reported by the MNOs during the period under review increased from N2. 923trillion in 2019 to N3.444trillion at end of last year. T
his represents an increase of 18.81 percent increase in the value of assets reported the previous year.

On local CAPEX investments in the industry, the MNOs reported a total CAPEX of N404, 819trillion as against the N339. 77trillion invested last year.

The data which also captured prepaid and postpaid mobile voice subscriptions in the country showed that total prepaid mobile voice subscriptions increased from 179,249,965 in December, 2019 to 199,043,508 as last December, indicating an increase of 11.04 per cent growth in prepaid Mobile Voice subscriptions.

“Similarly post-paid Mobile Voice Subscriptions increased from 5,208,832 in December, 2019 to 5,450,774 as at December, 2020 indicating an increase of 4.64 per cent growth in postpaid Mobile Voice Subscriptions at the end of 2020.

“In summary, the above analysis indicates that about 97.1 per cent of mobile subscribers are pre-paid subscribers while only about 2.8 per cent are postpaid subscribers,” the Commission noted.

The Northwest and Southwest geo-political zones recorded the highest number of subscriptions in the zones while the Northeast zone recorded the least number of subscriptions due to the insecurity situation of the zone that hampered investment.

Nation/Hauwa Abu