The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that subscribers to mobile telecommunications services in Nigeria spent about N767.23bn on airtime purchase between November 2018 and January 2019,
The
figure is derived from the number of subscribers in the three months
under review obtained from the NCC, and the industry’s Average Revenue
Per User provided by network operators.
It was gathered that, in
November 2018, the monthly subscriber data from NCC showed that there
were 168.73 million active GSM subscribers from MTN, Globacom, Airtel
and 9mobile.
In December, the number of active subscribers rose
to 172. 63 million while in January 2019, the country had 173.63 million
active GSM users.
With the telecommunications companies’ ARPU
amounting to $4.87 (N1490.22) per month, Nigerians spent N251.44bn on
airtime in November 2018. Based on the same estimated monthly revenue
per user in the industry, expenses on airtime purchase increased by two
per cent to reach N257.04bn in December 2018.
Also, in January
this year, about N258.74bn was expended by active Nigerian subscribers
on airtime, giving a total of N767.23bn in the three months under
review.
The data indicates that sales of airtime remain the core
revenue earner for telcos and generate income for operators via voice
calls, SMS, data subscriptions and value-added services.
It will
be noted that Nigerians buy airtime through various platforms such as
physical recharge card, the virtual top-up via USSD code, subscribers’
bank accounts domiciled on mobile devices, vending on web-based
platforms and on Automated Teller Machines.
The rise in airtime
revenue has out to rest worries and predictions by analysts that voice
and messaging revenue would decline due to the proliferation of instant
messaging apps.
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