The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) disclosed that Nigeria’s telecommunications sector had received investments worth $32 billion since 2015.
NCC’s spokesperson Ikechukwu Adinde stated this in a statement in Abuja while announcing the recognition of NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Umar Danbatta, at this year’s edition of the Nigeria Tech Innovation and Telecoms Awards for his role in advancing broadband development.
In the new report, the NCC disclosed that investments in the telecoms sector grew from $38 billion to $70 billion in 5 years.
“In the last five years, telecoms investment grew from around $38bn to over $70 billion currently, with appreciable remittances in spectrum fees and operating surplus by the NCC into the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue Fund,” the NCC said.
They added that Nigeria’s broadband penetration in the same period increased from 6% in 2015 to 45.43% by September 2020, while active internet subscriptions rose to 143.7 million from 90 million.
Nigeria’s telecoms sector has stood alone despite the challenging business climate in Nigeria. The last published GDP report which disclosed Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 6.1% in the second quarter of 2020.
Telecommunications, which is a sub-sector under the Information and Communication sector, reported a GDP growth rate of 18.1% in the second quarter of the year and is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country. The sector nearly doubled the 9.71% GDP growth rate recorded in the first quarter of 2020.
