….As Lagos Maintains Lead in Internet, Voice Subscriptions
The National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS’) at the weekend reported that Nigeria’s active internet subscribers rose to 163,838,439 in Q4 2023 from 154,847,901 reported in the corresponding quarter of 2022, indicating that internet a 5.81% year-on-year increase while on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the number grew by 2.29%.
The latest figures imply that efforts by the Federal Government to deepen broadband penetration nationwide through investments are yielding positive results.
The statistics agency, in its ‘Telecoms Data: Active Voice and Internet per State, Porting and Tariff Information (Q4 2023)’ also reported that the total number of active voice subscribers marginally increased to 224,713,710 in the quarter under review from 222,571,568 recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022, indicating a growth rate of 0.96% year-on-year and by 1.32% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
On state-by-state basis, the report showed that Lagos State had the highest number of active internet subscribers in Q4 2023 with 18,927,446, followed by Ogun with 9,570,463 and Kano with 9,031,581.
Conversely, Bayelsa recorded the least active internet subscriber with 1,193,525, followed by Zamfara and Gombe with 1,959,252 and 2,100,073 respectively.
Similarly, when analyzed on zonal profiles, the South West zone recorded the highest subscription totalling 48, 326,476 in Q4 2023 followed by the North West with 30,291,795 subscription while the North Central recorded 28,747,915 compared to the North East’s 20,457,677 subscriptions. The South South had 19,726,881 internet subscriptions while the South East recorded the lowest subscriptions of 16,073,822 as of the end of December 2023.
According to the report, Lagos State recorded the highest number of active voice subscribers in Q4 2023 with 26, 739,346, followed by Ogun with 13,070,779 and Kano with 12,325,633.
Just as the internet subscription trend showed, Bayelsa still recorded the least with 1,557,786, followed by Zamfara and Gombe with 2,772,424 and 2,785,030 respectively.
A further analysis of the active voice subscriptions on zonal profile in Q4 2023 indicated that the South West led with 67,281,473; North West, 40,978,174; North Central, 39,493,190; North East, 27,407,924; while the South South and South East zones recorded 26,799,782 and 22,755,167 active voice subscriptions in the quarter under review.
The statistics agency further clarified that as it had been the trend over the years, MTN maintained its status as the telecommunication service providers with highest share of subscriptions in Q4 2023.
On porting activities by network during the quarter under review, the report reflected that MTN recorded the highest ported in numbers with 1,661 followed by Airtel which recorded 795 inward porting and that Globacom and 9mobile had 195 and 77 ported in numbers respectively in Q4 2023.
The total number of ported lines by the mobile network operators during the quarter stood at 2,279.
Also, the NBS’ data reflected that in porting out activities by network 9mobile suffered the highest rate of ported out lines totalling 2,059 during the quarter compared to Globacom 217 lines. Airtel and MTN recorded 277 and 177 ported out lines in Q4 2023.
