In 2023, telecom firms (Telcos) generated N5.3 trillion in revenue from voice and internet services.

This resulted from an increase in telecom subscriptions, which went from 222 million in 2022 to 224 million in 2023.

Remember how Legit.ng previously reported that around this time, telecom users spent N44.7 billion on sending SMS texts across networks?

The number of active subscribers rose.

This data was released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in its “2023 Subscriber/Network Performance Report,” which was released at the end of 2023.

According to the report, Internet service providers (ISPs) made approximately N89.8 billion, value-added service providers (VAS) made N14.6 billion, collocation and infrastructure sharing operators made N1.14 trillion, GSM operators made N4 trillion, fixed wired operators made N273 billion, and other operators made N41.8 billion, for a total of N5.3 trillion.

According to the NCC study, over the year under review, the telecom sector’s percentage of Nigeria’s GDP increased from 13.55% to 14%.
By December 2023, there were 224.7 million active customers, up from 222.6 million in 2022, and data usage had surpassed 713 terabytes.

With capital expenditures (CAPEX) hitting N990.55 billion in domestic investments and operating costs for telecom businesses in Nigeria totaling N3.16 trillion, the report also noted development in all financial areas of the telecom sector.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reports that FDI in the telecom industry decreased from $399.91 million in 2022 to around $134.75 million in 2023.

The number of active subscribers increased from 222, 571,568 subscriptions in 2022 to 224,713, 710 active voice subscriptions as of December 2023, according to the report. This represents a 2.14 million subscription increase and a 0.96 percent growth in active subscriptions year over year.

The rise in the number of subscribers for telecom operators was due to customer loyalty, promotions, efforts to attract new users, and competitive products offered by all networks.

The growth in subscriptions was also driven by factors such as higher data usage, more subscribers, and significant investments in infrastructure by the operators.

The report added: “The increase in subscriber base is attributed to high volumes of subscriber activation and reactivation drive of efficient customer retention management strategies and an increase in new subscriber additions within the period under review.”