Glo is fastest-growing network, says Bureau of Statistics

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has identified Nigeria’s telecommunications carrier, Globacom, as the fastest-growing operator in Nigeria in the last 12 months in terms of subscriber acquisition.
The bureau, in an analysis of the figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in its 2015 first quarter report, said Globacom recorded the highest number of new subscribers in the country with 1.63 million telephone users in the country joining the network from May, 2014 to May, 2015 to bring its total subscribers figure to 30.03million.
The bureau stated that the monthly growth rate in GSM subscriber figures since May, 2014 averaged 0.95 per cent, with Globacom driving the growth.
NBS added that the greatest increase was recorded in December, 2014 at 1.97 per cent and the lowest in July of the same year at 0.43 per cent.
“The growth in subscribers was mainly driven by Globacom, which recorded an average rate of 1.45 per cent over the period, closely followed by Etisalat with 1.37 per cent and Airtel with 1.29 per cent, while MTN recorded the lowest average monthly growth in subscribers at 0.44%,” the NBS noted in its report.
NBS added that the telecoms sector in real terms recorded a growth rate of 5.26 per cent in the opening quarter of 2015 with a contribution of N134bn to economic output.
According to the Bureau, annual growth in the sector averaged 46.29 per cent between 2002 and 2014, with the highest rate recorded in 2004 at 153.65 per cent, while the lowest rise of 8.53 per cent was recorded in 2011.
NBS said the greatest monthly growth rate of the four networks was recorded for Globacom in July 2014. During that month, Globacom’s subscribers increased by 1.63 million or 6.37 per cent. The lowest rate was recorded for Airtel with a total value of 436,260 or 1.72 per cent in July.
The Bureau put the subscriber base of the mobile telecommunications sector at 143.05 million as of the end of the first quarter of 2015, adding that the sector recorded a significant growth from 2.27 million subscribers in 2002 when the first mobile license was issued to the present figure of 143.05 million.