The latest industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed a sharp drop in the subscriber base of telecommunication companies in the country.
Latest statistics released by the commission yesterday indicated that the companies recorded subscriber shortfall to the tune of over three million in the month of April 2021.
According to the latest industry statistics released by NCC, the subscriber base fell from 192,413,613 in March to 188,705,734 in April
The total figure revealed that data subscription fell from 151,296,836 in January to 141,765,721 in April.
According to NCC, the number of data subscription fell from 150,898,122 in January to 141,407,324 in April while that of VoIP fell from 387,169 in January to 346,293 in April. However that of the fixed wireless rose from 11,545 in same month to 12,104 in April.
Globacom was the biggest loser for the month of April, with about 2 million subscribers lost. MTN lost about a million, while both Airtel and 9mobile lost less than 500,000 subscribers together.
MTN’s subscribers dropped from 75,927,231 in March to 74,819,864 in April. Globacom dropped from 52,918,718 in March to 50,598,855 in April. 9mobile dropped from 12,850,383 in March to 12,779,155 in April. Airtel dropped from 50,384,950 in March to 50,177,408 in April.
Broadband penetration dropped from 41.18 per cent in March to 40.66 per cent in April. This was because telcos lost more than one million data subscribers in the month of April. No porting services were recorded for the month as has been the case since January.
In December 2020, the sale and registration of new SIM cards was banned by the Federal Government and a December 30 deadline for people to link their National Identity Number with their SIM cards was set. This has since been moved to June 30, 2021.
***Culled material