According to the 2021 Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report, In Nigeria, telecommunications operators, including GSM, fixed telephony operators; Internet Service Providers (ISPs); Value Added Service (VAS); Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing, and others, earned over US$ 7.6 billion in 2021.
The operating cost of these operators was US$4.13 billion, while CAPEX (domestic investment) stood at US$2.6 billion as of 2021.
The report was prepared by the Policy Competition and Economic Analysis Department of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The report disclosed that the CAPEX for GSM players was US$2.6 billion; they operated with US$3.9 billion and earned as revenue US$6.6 billion. The Fixed Wired operators had US$1.4 billion as domestic investment, operated with US$1.2 million and earned US$9 million. The ISPs’ revenue was US$144 million; CAPEX of US$8.6 million operated with US$116 million.
For the VAS operators, the CAPEX was US$ 807 261; operated with US$ 24 million and earned US$ 79 million. For Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing operators, they spent US$ 640 087 on domestic investment, operated with US$5.5 million and earned US$7.3 million in revenue.
Other operators in the sector, according to NCC, earned US$5.8 million, spent US$411 323 on domestic investment and operated with US$2.1 million.
The report, which depended on Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data, revealed that capital inflow (FDI) into the telecoms sector in 2021 was approximately $417.48 million against $942.86 million in 2019.
According to NCC, subscribers declined from 204,601,313 in 2020 to 195,463,898 active voice subscriptions at the end of 2020, with a loss of over 9 million subscriptions.
This indicates a 4.46 per cent decrease in total subscriptions within the period under review. The telecoms regulator indicated that the decline in operators’ subscriber base was due mainly to its instruction in December 2020 to all GSM operators to suspend the sale and registration of new SIMs, and SIM swaps and all porting activities.
The NCC highlighted that the audit exercise aimed to confirm and ensure compliance by Mobile Network Operators within the set quality standards and requirements of SIM Card Registration as directed by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Commission.
