NCC Report: Nigeria’s GSM Internet Subscribers Grew by 866, 656 in Just One Month!

The number of Nigeria’s GSM internet subscribers grew by 866, 656 in just one month, according to statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). According to the statistics for July, the total number of internet subscribers stood at 103,671,778 (GSM only)–an interesting growth over the 102,805,122 recorded in the month of June.

And according to the statistics, MTN continues to control a far larger market share than anybody else. Its total number of subscribers stood at 39,071,670. The second biggest telco is Glo, with a total of 27,146,075 subscribers. But GLO is closely followed by Airtel which has a 27,086,773 subscribers. 9Mobile continues to decline, losing over 200,000 subscribers in July. Its total subscribers now stand at 10,367,260.

"Internet users in Nigeria increased marginally to 103.6 million in July, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said."https://t.co/Jw7TVQGNv0

— BNLF (@BNLF_UK) September 10, 2018

Meanwhile, as GSM internet subscribers rise, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscribers took a hit. The subsector lost over 30,000 subscribers in July. Its total subscribers now stand at 312,231 compared to the 345,603 it recorded in June.

9Mobile Still the Favourite Network for Porting

Although 9Mobile has lost over 2 million internet subscribers since June 2017, it continues to remain the most desireable network for porters.

According to porting data, 9Mobile continues to accrue more subscribers from other network than anybody else. NCC statistics show that there were 6,877 incoming porting activities in July 2018. But 9Mobile alone gained 3,136 of those subscribers. This follows from the 3,555 subscribers it pulled in the previous month. Although this figure is small compared to the numbers it’s been losing, it does signal that the telco could still pull a lot of weight if its new owners can put it in order.

📈 TOP 15 Countries with the Highest Number of Internet Users

🇨🇳China
🇮🇳India
🇺🇸United States
🇧🇷Brazil
🇮🇩Indonesia
🇯🇵Japan
🇷🇺Russia
🇳🇬Nigeria
🇲🇽Mexico
🇧🇩Bangladesh
🇩🇪Germany
🇵🇭Philippines
🇻🇳Vietnam
🇬🇧United Kingdom
🇫🇷France

— Larry Kim (@larrykim) July 25, 2018

Interestingly, Glo continues to be least desirable network for porting. While other networks record thousands of ports, Glo continues to record numbers below 1,000. Its last figure was 733 and its last highest figure was 909 recorded in November 2017.

And for outgoing porting activities, subscribers are leaving each network at roughly the same figure. There were 6,906 outgoing porting activities. 9Mobile lost 1,773 subscribers, Airtel lost 1,518, Glo lost 1,774 and MTN lost 1,841. This looks roughly even, and shows clearly that many subscribers are not satisfied with the offering from their networks.

Telecom Sector Contributes 10% of GDP

With the increase in telecom subscribers, it may have had a bit of an impact on the sector’s GDP growth levels. According to the NCC, the telecom sector now contributes 10.43% to Nigeria’s GDP. That’s an important increase from the 9.19% recorded in the previous quarter.

This means that the Government should pay more attention to the policies and issues in this sector and how their impacts. The recent seeming  “witch-hunt” around MTN for instance and the delayed sale of 9Mobile are examples of issues that could disrupt the growth of the industry.