Nigerians Spend N238bn On Airtime Monthly

Telecoms subscribers in Nigeria currently spend
an estimated N238 billion on purchase of
airtime on their phones on a monthly basis,
latest investigations by New Telegraph have
shown. The estimate is based on the current
average revenue per user (ARPU) benchmark of
$8 (N1,593) and the current active subscriber
base in the country.
According to the latest report from the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the
country’s telecoms market recorded 150 million
active lines as at the end of September. New
Telegraph’s conservative analysis thus revealed
that by multiplying the ARPU with the monthly
subscriber base of 150 million, telecoms
subscribers on different mobile networks in
the country spend an estimated N238 billion.
Meanwhile, telecoms companies in Nigeria lost a
total of 357,997 active lines on their various
networks in September. From 151,018,624 active
telephone lines in August, the number of active
telephone lines on mostly GSM operators
including MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat
declined to 150,660,631 phone lines. This
represents a fall of 357,997 lines, according to
the latest industry status report in subscriber
base.
Analysts say the reduction in subscriber base
might not be unconnected with the directive by
the regulator mandating telecoms networks to
deactivate unregistered or poorly registered
subscriber identity module (SIM) lines on the
networks. In the same vein, teledensity plunged
from 107.87 per cent in August to 107.61 per
cent in September, representing a fall of 0.26
per cent. Telephone density or teledensity is
the number of telephone connections for every
hundred individuals living within an area.
It varies widely across the nations and also
between urban and rural areas within a
country. Telephone density has significant
correlation with the per capita Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) of the area. It is also used as
an indicator of the purchasing power of the
middle class of the country or specific region.
From January this year, active subscribers
have consistently increased from 140.8 million in
January to 151 million in August.
However, the August subscriber data is the
first time the operators witnessed a decrease
in subscriber base, ostensibly because of the
SIM deactivation saga. Month-on-month
subscriber data moved up to 142.5 million in
February. Of the 151 million active subscriber
base, GSM operators including MTN, Globacom,
Airtel and Etisalat, control 148.7 million; the
CDMA segment predominantly controlled by
Visafone has 2.1 million while fixed wired/
wireless networks have 189, 523 lines.
President, National Association of
TelecomsSubscribers (NATCOMS), Mr. Deolu
Ogunbanjo, said for as long as more Nigerians
continue to take up and rely on telecoms
services for their daily business and personal
activities, telcos would continue to increase
their revenues.
Ogunbanjo explained that telecoms industry has
become a critical sector, not only to the
individual telecoms consumer, but also to the
economy as a whole. He stated that Nigeria
had recorded an astronomical uptake in
telephone subscriptions, both in the urban and
rural areas in the last 14 years of telecoms
deregulation.
He said: “This is revealing. However, your
findings may be plus or minus, but I think it
provides us with an idea of how much
telecoms subscribers in Nigeria spend on their
respective service providers monthly.” “The
expenditure by subscribers has even reduced
drastically in the last 14 years of telecoms
regulation,” said President, Association of
Licensed Telecoms Operators(ALTON), Mr.
Gbenga Adebayo.
“You will recall that, in this country, we have
made calls for close to N100 and today, we
are witnessing a decrease in tariffs where we
make calls for just about N10 or below per
minute.”