The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released its Telecom sector data for the third quarter (Q3) of 2017. The report highlights key user metrics like voice subscription and internet subscribers at the national and regional level.
According to the report, Nigeria’s total active voice subscriptions stood at 139,907,213. This figure, however, represents an 8.73% drop from Q3 of 2016.
Meanwhile the country’s total internet subscriber base has continued to rise, although slowly. NBS data shows that in the third quarter of 2017, the country’s total active internet subscriptions stood at 93,263,436. This represents a 1.22% increase from the same quarter in 2016.
Unsurprisingly though, GSM accounted for about 90.70% of telecom technology used in both voice subscriptions and internet subscriptions. Other technologies such as CDMA, Fixed Wires/Wireless, and VoIP accounted for 0.30% of the total active voice subscriptions in Q3 of 2017.
MTN remains the biggest network in Nigeria
MTN emerged as the largest mobile network in Q3 of 2017, the NBS data revealed. In terms of voice communication, the network accounted for 35.96% of the subscriber base. Its closest competitor was Globacom (GLO) which captured 27.70% of the voice communication subscriber base in Q3 of 2017. Airtel and 9mobile made up the rest of the top voice communication providers. Airtel and 9mobile held 24.75% and 12.30% of the voice communication subscriber base respectively.
MTN also emerged the biggest telecom company in terms of internet subscribers in 2017. It captured 35% (32,556,629) of the 92,975,682 internet subscribers in Nigeria in Q3 of 2017. It was closely followed by Glo, which accounted for 29% (26,942,871) of the internet subscriber base. Airtel, on the other hand, grew its subscriber base from 15.6% to 23.4% (21,765,524). 9mobile was a distant fourth. It claimed only 12.6% (11,710,259) of the subscriber base; representing a huge 22.3% drop from the same quarter in 2016.
Lagos and Ogun states have the highest numbers of internet subscribers
Meanwhile at the state level, Lagos state unsurprisingly had the highest number of internet subscribers in the country. Total internet subscribers in Lagos state was 14,192,283, which represented 15.2% of all active internet subscriptions in the country. Lagos was closely followed by neighbouring Ogun State, which held 5,893,286 (6.3%) of active internet subscribers in Nigeria in Q3 2017.
According to NBS data, the top 10 states with the highest number of internet subscribers were Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, FCT, Kano, Kaduna, Rivers, Edo, Delta, and Niger states. These 10 states accounted for 54.9% of the internet subscriber base in the country in Q3 of 2017.