The recently released Q3-2022 GDP report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the Information and Communication sector grew by 10.5% y/y in real terms. The Telecommunication & Information services sub-sector was the primary driver for growth in the sector. It recorded a 10.1% y/y expansion in Q3-2022 and contributed 12.9% of the nation’s GDP in the period under review. Aggressive growth initiatives and synergy between the public and private sectors have primarily driven growth in the sector.

In the public sector, numerous policies and strategies implemented by the Federal Government have driven growth. Frameworks such as the National Broadband Plan 2020–2025, which target 70.0% broadband penetration by 2025, the SIM Card Registration Policy, and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020–2030, among others, serve as the principal policies driving Nigeria’s digital transformation. More recently, the Federal Government removed a bottleneck in broadband penetration by reducing the Right of Way charges by 90.0% to N14.5 per linear data for operators who want to deploy greenfield broadband infrastructure projects. In the private sector, telcos have employed aggressive strategies to boost market penetration and have taken advantage of government incentives overcoming prior headwinds caused by a drop in revenues and customers catalysed by the FG’s sim registration mandate. Telecos registered 16.7mn subscribers in the first nine months of 2022. In addition, telecommunication giants MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa recorded N1.9tn from calls and data between January and September 2022, an 18.3% nominal increase from the N1.6tn recorded in the same period in 2021.

The Telecommunication & Information services sub-sector outlook is very positive and is primed for further growth with tailwinds such as the continued adoption of 5G, the government’s support for the industry, continued private sector participation supported by robust local and foreign capital inflows (capital importation for the telecoms sector has grown 3.7x y/y to $211.3mn in H1-2022 ), the granting of PSB licences to Telcos, among others will continue propelling the sector.