Nigeria now has more internet users than it has in the previous five years. The Nigeria Population Commission (NPC) ascribed the increase to the country’s most recent population adjustment.
In order to comply with worldwide best practices, the telecom regulators postponed their sector statistics for five months due to the amended data, which increased from 190 million in 2017 to 216.7 million in 2023.
According to the most recent data, the number of Nigerians with internet access in September 2023 was 160.1 million, compared to 106.4 million in September 2018; this represents a 53.7 percent growth in internet subscribers.
On the other hand, as of September 2023, the active voice subscription data increased slightly from 220,361,186 in August to 221,769,883.
Teledensity, or the percentage of telephones in Nigeria, has decreased from 115.63 percent to 102.30 percent, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) most recent telecoms indicator.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) developed the teledensity index, which measures the percentage of people in a population who own a phone by factoring in one line for every 100 people.
In a statement, Reuben Mouka, director of public affairs, stated that active voice and Internet subscriptions in Nigeria had been steadily rising, even in spite of the decline in teledensity.
The country’s teledensity decreased from 115.63 percent to 102.30 percent in September with the resultant adjustment, which is consistent with the ITU’s teledensity calculation. At the same time, broadband penetration decreased from 45.47 percent to 40.85 percent in September.
Under the previous administration, Minister of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy Isa Pantami released the National Broadband Plan three years earlier, the country’s broadband adoption rate has grown slowly. It seems that the predicted surge of broadband adoption is happening more slowly than first anticipated.
As stated in his Strategic Blueprint plan, Bosu Tijani, the current head of the ministry, is certain that the rate of broadband penetration would reach 70% by 2025.
The commission states that the revision will appear in the statistics reports on the telecom sector for September, October, and November of 2023 and beyond.
“Active voice subscriptions saw a 0.19 percent growth in October 2023, while teledensity remained at 102.49 percent and Internet subscriptions increased by 0.60 percent from September 2023,” the statement said.
The industry also saw a 0.46 percent increase in active voice subscriptions in November of that same year. During that time, Internet subscriptions increased by 0.57 percent, but teledensity was same at 102.97 percent from October 2023.
