Nigeria Ranks Highest In Africa’s Mobile Subscription By 2016

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigeria’s connected lines as at September 2011 is at 107.6 million for the GSM operators, while the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators is 12.4 million. Therefore, by 2016, Nigeria can rank highest in the whole of Africa’s subscription because it is predicted that there will be over 152.09 million mobile subscriptions by the end of 2016.

At the Africa Com event in Cape Town, South Africa, which begins today, this matter of mobile subscription growth and possibility of expansion would be a major topic for discussion

It is also predicted by experts that Egypt will hold onto its position as Africa’s second-biggest mobile market, with a forecast of 118.03 million subscriptions by the end-2016. South Africa, the continent’s third largest mobile market, would have 80.56 million mobile subscriptions by the same period.

According to a survey conducted by Informa and Telecoms media, Out of the 107.6 million connected lines for GSM operators, the active lines stood at 84.4 million, with the CDMAs’ ending September with a total active line of 5.22 million. In all, the installed capacity of the sector stood at 162.7 million with a teledensity of 66.8 per cent.

The Head of mobile research for the Middle East and Africa at Informa Telecoms & Media, Matthew Reed stated, “The combination in Africa of a still relatively immature telecoms market with factors including population growth, strong competition among providers and the increasing affordability of mobile devices, explains Africa’s move up the regional mobile-market rankings as well as its strong growth forecast.

Reed said Africa will retain its position as the second biggest regional mobile market by subscriptions forecasts for the coming five years. However, he noted that, there is a strong trend for Africa mobile subscribers to have multiple SIM cards and consequently the number of unique users of mobile services on the continent is smaller than the number of subscriptions.

According to him, “Nigeria will continue to be Africa’s biggest mobile market by subscriptions, with a projected 152.09 million subscriptions at end-2016. Egypt will hold onto its position as Africa’s second-biggest mobile market, with a forecasted 118.03 million subscriptions at end-2016. South Africa, the continent’s third largest mobile market, will have 80.56 million mobile subscriptions at end-2016.”

Africa has become the second most connected region in the world in terms of mobile subscription count; up from fourth place at end of 2010.This is being fuelled by dual Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) ownership. The number of unique users in Africa at end-2016 is projected to be 572.35 million.