Nigeria - African mobile leadership

Nigeria: Telecoms Market - Country Maintains Lead in Africa

Nigeria has maintained its lead as African's largest telecoms market with 47 million active subscribers relegating South Africa to second place with 42.3 million recorded subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Recent subscriber statistics of the South African telecoms market which lost its first place position to Nigeria late last year by cellular news showed that the South African market loss of 0.61m subscribers the first quarter of the year and Nigeria's strong showing in terms of subscriber numbers during the same period helped maintain Nigeria's lead.

Thus South Africa by this showing has failed to break the 100% penetration barrier, having reached 97.9% at the end of 2007; the loss of customers saw it slide to 96.6%.

The Nigerian Communications Commission NCC had two weeks ago announced an increase in the nation's subscriber base to 47,205,063 million at the end of April an increase of more than two million over the 45,899,711 recorded active subscriber base for the month of March.

The results showed a marked increase in the nation's teledensity ratio from 32.79% to 33.72%. The teledensity ratio which was 0.73% in 2001 has steadily increased over the years till it hit the 33. 72 of April landmark. A breakdown of the recent NCC data showed that the total active subscriber base increased from 45,899,711, to 47,205,063 up from 42,915,867 recorded in January. Out of this total, GSM recorded 43, 786,542 active lines, mobile CDMA, 567,185 and fixed wired/wireless 1,545,984.

Total installed capacity also increased to 88,471,789 up from 84,698,559 with mobile GSM also the highest with 79,625,308, mobile CDMA 3, 170,000. While fixed wired /wireless 5,676,481.

On the other hand, Cellular news which reported the South African subscriber numbers emphasised that the uptake of mobile technology has made South Africa the highest-penetrated sub-Saharan market, with Libya emerging as the first African market to surpass the 100% mark by reaching 104.9% at the end of Q1 08.

Vodacom was said to have suffered the greatest loss in real terms by shedding 0.79m active customers to slide back to 22.27m, lower even than the Q3 07 figure of 22.50m. Though it still remain the South Africa.s clear leader with 52.6% of the total, having gained year on year 1.70 million although this is its lowest figure since Q4 04. Another Network operator, Cell C also saw a decline in customers in the first quarter following marvellous gain in the fourth quarter of 2007. It lost 0.19m to slide back below 5m to 4.91m, with net annual additions totalling 1.68m. In terms of market share, it lost 0.3pp quarter on quarter but still recorded a rise compared to Q1 07, ending Q1 08 on 11.6%. The MTN Group which came third place in the South African market, although its number one in Nigeria emerged as the only operator to gain customers on a net basis in the first quarter, finishing up 0.37m on 15.17m. Combined with the other operators' losses, this saw it reach its highest market share figure for three years, with 35.8% of the total.This year has no doubt been good for MTN as its share of the 3G market has risen, a 10pp year on year gain taking its first quarter figure to 46.2% of the total. It went through the 1m barrier during the first quarter to finish on 1.12m thanks to a record-breaking 211k quarterly net additions. Vodacom finished on 1.30m. In total, the number of W-CDMA handsets grew by 163.6% year on year, from 0.9m to 2.4m.Because of the loss of customers in Q1 - the first such quarterly decline in more than six years - annual growth slumped to 14.4%, the lowest figure since Q2 02