Telecom Subscribers Spend N2.59 Trillion on Airtime and Data in Q3 2023

The data of the total amount Nigerian telecom subscribers have spent on airtime and data increased to N2.59 trillion in the first nine months of 2023.

This data was according to the financial statements of MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa, which showed a 32.57% increase from the record of the corresponding year, which settled at N1.95 trillion in 2022.

AIRTEL REPORT: It showed that the increase in voice and data venue was attributed to the rising data subscriptions and the devaluation of the country's currency. In 2022, during the same period, Airtel generated $1.4 billion from airtime and data, which, when converted at the exchange rate of N461/$ obtained at the time, amounted to N647.71 billion.

MTN REPORT: It showed that increased by 36.36% year-on-year, while voice revenues increased by 10.64%, showing an increase in internet usage in the country. In 2023, MTN revenue from these two sources amounted to $1.29 billion. When converted at the exchange rate of N777/$ at the time, it amounted to N1.003 trillion.

Regarding this growth, MTN said, 

• Data revenue grew by 36.4% on increased usage and data conversion in new and existing base.

• Data usage (GB per user) grew by 29.1% to 8.6GB, and the number of smartphones on our network increased by 7.6%, bringing smartphone penetration to 53.4%, up 1.4pp YoY.

• Consequently, we recorded a 46.3% growth in data traffic, with the 4G network accounting for 83.7% of the total traffic (up 5.2pp YoY).

Airtel said in part,

• Data revenue grew by 29.3% in constant currency, driven by data customer base growth of 17.4% and data ARPU growth of 12.3%.

• Data usage per customer increased by 23.8% to 5.9 GB per month (from 4.8 GB in the prior period). Our continued 4G network rollout has resulted in nearly 100% of all our sites delivering 4G services.

REPORT: In 2022, the rise of internet usage due to video streaming pushed telecom subscribers to spend N3.86 trillion on telecom services. It was an 18.74% increase from the N3.25 trillion spent in 2021. Data usage in the country surged by 46.77% to 518,381.78TB in 2022 from 353,118.89TB in 2021.