Just as the number of mobile subscriptions in Nigeria rose to 222.23 million in 2022, MTN, Glo still lead in mobile subscriptions as count hits 222.23 last year.
Otherwise, MTN Nigeria has continued to maintain its lead in the last 21 years as it grew by 20.96 per cent from 73.59 million to 89.02 million; leaving indigenous carrier, Globacom growing by 9.98 per cent from 54.82 million to 60.29 million within the period under review.
Also, Airtel grew by 11.38 per cent from 53.93 million to 60.07 million; just as 9mobile grew by 0.49 per cent from 12.85 million to 12.79 million.
Besides, despite the implementation of the Federal Government’s National Identification Number (NIN) -Subscriber Identity Module policy, which many government officials including the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, claimed will curb criminality, there has not been any criminal syndicate busted with reliance on NIN fact-check.
In October 2021, a former Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, while speaking during the live programme, advised Nigerians to make use of the extension of the NIN-SIM integration exercise to October 31, 2021, to enrol with NIMC, get their NIN and link it to their SIMs. “Soon, people without NIN will be denied of necessary services that play vital roles in their lives including acquisition of driver’s license, international passport,” he said.
Explaining more on the core benefits of the NIN-SIM integration, Adinde said the exercise will significantly enhance national security as NIN is the primary identity for Nigerians, stressing that in line with Federal Government’s commitment to ensure that Nigeria deploys technology to improve service delivery, the NIN-SIM database will enhance citizens’ access to government services.
However, there has never been any breakthrough by any of the security agencies that is largely aided by NIN-SIM integration, thus, raising questions about the hush-push applied by the government in 2021 on the issue after all.
Business Hilights recalls that at the start of the policy in April, over 72.77 million active telecommunication subscriptions were barred from making calls. But the industry has since shaken off the effect of this and grew by 13.89 per cent in 2022.
According to new data from the Nigerian Communications Commission, the total number of subscriptions grew from 195.13 million as of December 2021 to 222.23 million as of December 2022. This growth signified a complete shake-off of the decline that plagued the telecoms industry in 2021 when the total number of mobile subscriptions declined by 4.42 per cent from 204.15 million as of December 2020 to 195.13 million as of December 2021.
Still last year, teledensity, the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area grew to 116.60 per cent the (highest on record).
