Telecom, Media Subscriptions in Nigeria Reach 171 Million

The number of subscriptions from mobile, fixed broadband, fixed voice, and pay-TV had reached 171 million as of the end of 2017, a recent research by Ovum revealed.


Ovum in its Nigeria Telecoms and Media Outlook report published in partnership with Nigeria.com stated that this made Nigeria the 10th largest telecoms and media market globally by total number of connections in 2017.

The research company predicted that the Nigerian telecoms and media market would have 220 million subscriptions by the end of 2022, at a CAGR of 4.2 per cent since 2017.

According to the Ovum’s Senior Analyst for Africa, Thecla Mbongue, Nigeria would retain its top market position in Africa in 2022, while globally, it would rise from the 10th position to the eighth position.

Mbongue also said that Nigerian market would record the third-fastest CAGR globally between 2017 and 2022 in terms of number of connections.

“The market is driven by the mobile segment, whose growth rate was slower in 2015 and 2016. The number of mobile subscriptions declined in half year 2017. According to market leader, MTN, the trend results from a new subscriber accounting policy and the regulation requiring all subscriber connections to take place in permanent structures,” she said.

She added, “The number of mobile subscriptions is expected to grow from 164 million in 2017 to 210 million in 2022. Fixed broadband connections are growing on the back of the FTTx uptake. The number of fixed broadband subscriptions will increase from 1.7 million in 2017 to 3.2 million in 2022. “