Growth in telecoms sector: Glo leads with 39%

Following the announcement by the Nigerian Communications Commission that the telecommunications sector played a major role in getting Nigeria out of recession with a contribution of 12.45 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product, further details show that national operator, Globacom, was instrumental to it.

According to data by the National Bureau of Statistics, the rise in internet subscriptions in 2020 contributed massively to the growth in the telecoms industry.

Globacom led the growth with a 39 per cent increase in its internet subscriber figure in the twelve months of 2020, the highest in the industry.

According to the NCC statistics, the sector grew by 28,145,458 new internet users from 125,728,328 at the end of December 2019 to 153,873,786 in December, 2020.

This represented a 22 per cent growth.

Data grandmasters, Globacom, recorded the most growth among the operators, moving from 28,934,439 data users at the end of 2019 to 40,106,659 at the end of 2020.

This is an addition of 11,172,220 new data subscribers or 39 per cent growth in the telecoms sub-sector.

The figure is also by far higher than the 22 percentage growth recorded in the sector in the review year.

Following Globacom was MTN, which recorded a 21 per cent growth in its data users last year, while Airtel recorded 20 per cent increase to place third.

On the other hand, 9mobile recorded a loss during the period as data users on its network declined by 12 per cent.

Glo data services are powered by the huge capacity international submarine cable called Glo1, a wholly owned facility built from Europe to Nigeria and other West African countries.

Globacom also owns a robust infrastructure and is the only operator in Nigeria with integrated domestic and international network.

Its high speed optic fibre network covers thousands of kilometres across the country.

Analysts believe that Globacom’s notable performance in the sector is because of the continuous network upgrade which enhances data service delivery to its subscribers.

It also offers subscribers attractive data packages with great value for money.