Nigerians spend more than N100 billion on browsing

In the year 2020, the Nigerian telecommunications sector had considerable development, with Nigerians using a total of 205,880.4 terabytes of data. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s 2020 subscriber/network data report, this is the case.

Nigerians spent at least N100.3 billion on internet data in the review year, based on the NCC’s 2020 average cost of 1GB of data of N487.18.

According to the research, data use in 2020 grew by 66.5 percent over the previous year, from 123,648 terabytes in 2019 to 205,880.4 terabytes in 2020. Broadband penetration reached at 45.93 percent within the year, according to the research.

According to the report, revenue generated by GSM operators increased by 12.33 percent from N2.02 trillion the previous year to N2.27 trillion in the review period, while revenue generated by internet service providers increased by 28.31 percent from N53.75 billion the previous year to N68.96 billion in the review period.

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One investment

For telecoms, a crisis has turned into a godsend.

The Federal Government’s lockdown measures in reaction to the development of the Covid-19 epidemic are mostly to blame for the substantial increase in the volume of internet bandwidth utilized in 2020.

Nigerian firms were compelled to be inventive and develop virtual working models during the shutdown, relying on the internet to carry out their day-to-day operations. Meetings, discussions, and official functions were shifted to virtual platforms, which boosted internet usage.

Seminars have also been transformed to webinars. Most companies employed online virtual platforms like Zoom and Teams, among others, to host webinars and annual general meetings (AGMs), which, of course, relied on the usage of internet data by both the company and individual listeners.

The internet played a major role in the entertainment scene, as many social media comedians took to the stage to feed Nigerians with comedy skits on their various social media handles as the lockdown kept people at home, bringing in revenue for content creators as Nigerians continued to stream these contents. Similarly, throughout the epidemic, music events were streamed live online.

What the NCC had to say

“The Nigerian Telecom Industry saw substantial expansion that impacted favorably in spite of the recession brought about by COVID-19,” according to the study. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the industry helped to pull the economy out of recession, adding 12.45 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

It also stated that mobile network operators (MNOs) received significant investments in the 4G service rollout, resulting in increased growth.

“The rise in data consumption is directly connected to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted regular operations and forced most functions, including schools and corporate meetings, to be held virtually,” the study continued.

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Meanwhile, as of the end of December 2020, 4,032 users had subscribed to speeds between 256Kbps and 2Mbps, accounting for 0.7 percent of the total user base; 21,985 users had subscribed to speeds between 2 and 10Mbps, accounting for 4% of the total user base; and 520,006 users had subscribed to speeds of 10mbps and above, accounting for 95% of the total.

Similarly, the total number of active internet subscribers grew by 22.5 percent from 125.98 million memberships in December 2019 to 154.29 million at the end of December 2020.