Nigeria’s risen 160m active mobile lines salutary to e-Voting next year—Expert
Following latest figures churned out by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), showing that Nigeria’s active mobile telephone lines has jumped from the 149 million in March to 160 million in April, indicating an increase of 11, 226, 713 million, digital experts have started making strong for introduction of e-voting in the nation’s general elections.
According to a Lagos digital analyst, Dr. Shina Adewale, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Business Hilights Intelligence Unit (BHIU), he said “The latest report by NCC that Nigeria’s active mobile telephone lines has cross more than half of the nation’s population, means that Nigeria is ripe for electronic voting in every election”.
“I believe that part of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) should focus on getting the best from rising teledensity and active mobile line. Teledensity is the number of telephone connections for every 100 individuals living within an area and it varies widely across the country.
“We gain nothing from have a resource and not using it cut down costs of election. With 160 million active mobile lines, it means close to 95 per cent of Nigerians from the age of 18 now have mobile phones and the best way we can internalize that is to adopt e-voting as soon as possible,” Dr. Adewale averred.
In view of the NCC’s monthly Subscribers Operator Data posted on its website Monday, June 04, 2018, the figures showed that the total number of mobile telephone lines in April stood at 160,081,051, compared to 148, 854, 338 in March.
Additional details show that the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), for active mobile lines, however, had 217,566 users in April, just as in March.
The report said the number of fixed wired/wireless for active mobile lines in April was 136, 496 compared to March, which had 136,781 recording a decrease of 285.
According to NCC, the number of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) was 89, 477 April compared with 85,185 recorded in March, recording an increase of 4,292.
It also revealed that Teledensity for April was 114.66 against 106.64 in March, an increase of 8.02.
NCC also said the number of connected mobile lines in April decreased to 238,032,318 compared with 236, 116,977 in March, a decrease of 84,659.
The report said the number of fixed wired/wireless for connected lines in April was 344, 892 compared to March that had 335,485, an increase of 9, 407.
The number of VOIP for connected lines in April was 575, 712, as against 542, 063 in March, an increase of 33,649.
