THE amount spent on calls and data rose by 19.06 per cent from N2.25tn in 2021 to N2.68tn in 2022.
This is according to data from the 2022 full-year financial reports of MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa. The N2.68tn was spent by customers of both telecommunication firms.
In 2022, Airtel recorded N488.24bn ($1.06bn) and N390.50bn ($847m) as voice and data revenues respectively. In 2021, it was N441.22bn ($957m) and N318.58bn ($691m) respectively. For MTN, voice revenue was N1.04tn and data revenue was N764.82bn in 2022. It was N970.85bn and N520.54bn respectively in 2021.
An analysis of the report showed growing data revenues which is in line with increasing streaming, data usage, and experts’ expectations.
MTN’s voice revenue grew by 6.78 per cent year-on-year, while its data revenue rose by 46.93 per cent y-o-y. Airtel’s voice revenue grew by 10.66 per cent y-o-y, and its data revenue rose by 22.58 per cent y-o-y.
According to experts, data revenues are likely to outgrow voice revenues in 18 months or more.
Commenting on the growth, Airtel said, “Voice revenue increased by 15.4 per cent in constant currency, largely driven by customer base growth of 13.0 per cent supported by voice ARPU growth of 2.2 per cent.
“Data revenue increased by 26.6 per cent in constant currency, driven by both data customer base growth of 16.0 per cent and data ARPU growth of 9.2 per cent. Over the last year, we have enhanced our 4G network with ample data network capacity to provide high-speed data to our customers with almost 100 per cent of our sites now on 4G and a data capacity increase of 28 per cent.
“This has contributed to 4G data customer growth of 20.7 per cent. Data usage per customer increased by 25.6 per cent facilitating continued data ARPU growth. Data usage per customer reached 5 GB per customer per month from 4 GB per customer per month in the previous period.”
Commenting on the firm’s financial earnings, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, said, “Voice revenue maintained a steady recovery as more customers were reactivated and gross connections ramped up.
“This was backed by our customer value management initiatives through which we managed churn and drove increased usage from the existing base. As a result, voice revenue rose by 6.8 per cent, bucking the slower growth trend of general voice traffic as data traffic continues to increase.
“Data revenue rose by 46.9 per cent on the sustained growth of our active data users and increased data usage. This was supported by our 4G network expansion drive and enhanced quality and capacity of the network to support the rising data traffic. Our 4G network now covers 79.1 per cent of the population, up from 70.3 per cent in December 2021.
“Data traffic rose by 66.6 per cent, of which 79.5 per cent was carried on the 4G network. Usage (MB per user) grew by 47.4 per cent. In addition, we added over 5.5 million new smartphones to our network in 2022, bringing smartphone penetration to 52.4 per cent.”
In the year under review, the Nigerian Communications Commission asked telcos to restrict outgoing calls from subscribers that had not linked their NINs to their SIMs following a directive from the Federal Government.
At the time of implementing the order, about 72 million subscribers were affected. According to MTN and Airtel, the implementation of the SIM-NIN policy affected them. Airtel stated that it lost about $87m between April and December 2022.
MTN said most of its customers affected by the policy abandoned their SIMs for new ones. Revenue figures for Globacom and 9mobile are not available, as they do not publish their financial reports.
According to the NCC, there were over 222 million mobile subscriptions as of the end of 2022. The growth in telcos revenue shows the increasing adoption of mobile services. According to GSMA, mobile connectivity can accelerate Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital transformation and drive socioeconomic advancement in areas such as healthcare, education, digital commerce, industrial automation, and smart city infrastructure.
18 million Nigerians are expected to become unique telecom subscribers in 2025. Commenting on the growth of mobile services, GSMA said, “In 2021, mobile technologies and services generated around 8 per cent of GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa, a contribution that amounted to almost $140bn of economic value added.
“The mobile ecosystem also supported more than 3.2 million jobs (directly and indirectly) and made a substantial contribution to the funding of the public sector, with $16 billion raised through taxes on the sector.
“By 2025, mobile’s contribution will grow by $65bn (to almost $155 billion), as the countries in the region increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased take-up of mobile services.”
