Consumers’ airtime, data consumption hits N2.6tn in nine months – Report
By Felicia Nwosu
A financial report on MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa has shown that consumption on airtime and data by Nigerian telecom subscribers hit at least N2.59tn in the first nine months of 2023.
According to the report, there was a 32.57 per cent increase from the N1.95tn both telcos recorded from both income sources in the corresponding period of 2022.
Analyses on the report on Airtel showed an upward growth in voice and data venue which was partially driven by rising data subscriptions and the devaluation of the naira.
There is a strong proof that in the first nine months of 2022, Airtel made $1.41bn from airtime and data, which when converted at the exchange rate of N461/$ which was obtained at the time, it amounted to N647.71bn.
It also added that in the same period of 2023, the company’s income from these two revenue sources amounted to $1.29bn, which when converted also, at the exchange rate of N777/$ at the time, it amounted to N1.003tn.
Meanwhile, for its counterpart, MTN, increasing data revenues continue to fuel the company’s overall revenue growth, while data revenues grew by 36.36 per cent year-on-year.
The report accounted that voice revenues only grew by 10.64 per cent, indicating a rise in the usage of the Internet in the country.
MTN while reacting to the new growth status said data revenue grew by 36.4 per cent on increased usage and data conversion in new and existing base.
The Yello’ network service provider explained that data usage on its network grew by 29.1 per cent in the period under review. It noted,
“Data usage (GB per user) grew by 29.1 per cent to 8.6GB, and the number of smartphones on our network increased by 7.6 per cent, bringing smartphone penetration to 53.4 per cent, up 1.4pp YoY. Consequently, we recorded a 46.3 per cent growth in data traffic, with the 4G network accounting for 83.7 per cent of the total traffic (up 5.2pp YoY).”
On the other hand also, Airtel said it recorded an increase in data usage per customer to 5.9 GB per month.
“Data revenue grew by 29.3 per cent in constant currency, driven by data customer base growth of 17.4 per cent and data as average revenue per user growth of 12.3 per cent, while data usage per customer increased by 23.8 per cent to 5.9 GB per month (from 4.8 GB in the prior period). Our continued 4G network rollout has resulted in nearly 100 per cent of all our sites delivering 4G services.”
It affirmed that it recorded an increased in its internet usage pushed by the rise in video streaming, which accelerated the amount telecom consumers spent on telecom services to N3.86tn in 2022.
Previously at 18.74 per cent increase from the N3.25tn that was spent in 2021,where data usage in the country surged by 46.77 per cent to 518,381.78TB in 2022 from 353,118.89TB in 2021.
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