Nigeria's telecom sector contributed N15 trillion to its GDP in Q1 2017

folarin okunola

May 19, 2017 1:01 PM

The telecoms sector has also been consistently contributing between N1.43 and N1.45 trillion to the economy [in the 18 months Danbatta has been in charge].

NCC CEO, Umar Garba Danbatta

The telecommunications sector has contributed as much as N15 trillion to the Nigerian economy in the first quarter of 2017. That’s about 9 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Whilst admitting that the quality of service offered by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country has not been impressive, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. UmarDanbatta, said the sectors Q1 performance is up 1 per cent from the eight per cent it recorded in Q4 of 2016.

The telecoms sector has also been consistently contributing between N1.43 and N1.45 trillion to the economy [in the 18 months Danbatta has been in charge] on a quarterly basis, Danbatta said while giving a report on the sector in Lagos.

Perhaps to ensure that those numbers increase and the sectors grows at a faster pace, the NCC also said it will be reviewing some of the Key Performance Indices (KPIs) for MNOs.

ALSO READ: Telco's parent company will save it from its debtors via recapitalisation

Danbatta, while giving his report, did not say give a breakdown of how the telecoms sector achieved these numbers. However, he did give some insight into current consumer behaviour in the sector.

The NCC boss said telephone subscriptions were dropping in the country because people are moving from 3G to 4G LTE adding that “they rather use WhatsApp to communicate and even make free calls. Consumers are moving away from high tariff services to a more cheaper and free services.”

The NCC will still have to work on things like the Do Not Disturb service for unsolicited text messages — which does not work — and misguided policies like the recently announced smart cities initiative as well as Nigeria's perennial infrastructural problems to make the telecoms sector as viable as is needed.

folarin okunola