Nigerias Telecoms Record 0.80% Increase In Q4

The rate of telecom subscribers in Nigeria has increased to 154,529,780 from the 153,299,535 recorded in September 2015, representing a quarterly increase of 0.80 per cent as at December 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said in its telecommunications sector summary report for December 2016.According to the NBC, the sectors growth continued unabated since April 2016, after which a decrease in the number of subscribers began to set in.The report said the yearly increase in total subscriber numbers was 2.33 per cent, which was slightly higher than the yearly increase of 1.75 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.In real terms, the NBS disclosed that the telecommunications sector contributed N 1.40 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2016, or 8.0 per cent, which represents a decrease of 1.8 per cent points relative to the previous quarter.Last quarters growth rate has been revised up slightly. It has revised (from 1.73 per cent) following the inclusion of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, in addition to the four services of (GSM, CDMA, Fixed Wired and Wireless) discussed in previous reports.The four services are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Core Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Fixed Wired and Wireless.The numbers are small relative to the total, possibly due to the service being newer, the federal agency said.The agency said due to differing seasonal patterns, telecommunications tends to account for the lowest share of GDP in the third quarter of last year. The share of telecommunications in total real GDP had declined throughout 2010 to 2014, but for the last six quarters growth in telecommunications has been higher, meaning the trend has reversed, it added.As in the previous quarter, NBS said the increase in subscriber numbers was despite a quarterly fall in CDMA subscribers of 21.26 per cent a situation, the report said compounded previous quarterly falls leading to year-on-year fall of 89.87 per cent in December, a fall surpassed only by the year-on-year fall of 89.88 per cent in November.The number of fixed wireless subscribers also recorded a large decline, of 12.54 per cent compared to the previous quarter and 55.03 per cent year -on year, it said.
Click here to read full news..