Nigeria Telecom Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Nigeria Telecom Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The Nigerian telecom market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.54% over the next five years. Key telecom companies, such as MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Gloabacom, Orange, and InterC Network, are based in Nigeria and promote innovation by making significant R&D investments consistently.

• Government authorities are working with private telecom service providers to expand their broadband services. For instance, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) plans to deploy broadband infrastructure under the National Communications Backbone (NCB) project. The project's implementation includes the deployment of 120,000 km of fiber across the country, increasing broadband penetration to 70% by 2025, and connecting 60% of communication towers with fiber.
• The growing demand for high-speed connectivity services by customers and increasing spending on the deployment of 5G infrastructure will positively influence the growth of the Nigerian telecom market. For instance, MTN Nigeria partnered with Huawei to install over 100 5G base stations. Commercial 5G rollout is to offer high-speed service for customers.
• The country's transition from 3G and 4G to 5G is still rising. Key telecom players collaborate with the government to deploy 5G networks nationwide. For instance, MTN Nigeria plans to invest USD1.5 billion over the next three years to expand broadband access in the West African nation. Such initiatives will further bring new opportunities for the telecom market.
• Fixed broadband penetration is expected to grow over the next five years. Deployment of fixed broadband service to remote locations will bring growth opportunities for the telecom market.
• During the COVID-19 scenario, most people preferred the work-from-home mode, thus increasing broadband subscribers. Wireless and wired broadband services can provide high-speed internet services. As per the post-COVID-19 data, users wants high-speed internet access with low latency. Key players in the market focused on expanding broadband services that support 4G and 5G networks.

• Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service is expected to remain dominant across the broadband service category. The increase in wireless broadband services will likely drive the telecom market growth positively. For instance, MTN Nigeria expanded fixed broadband services for homes. The firm offers residential connectivity via fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and FWA networks available to connect multiple devices at home or in the office. FWA router service supports 3G and 4G networks.
• Government authorities are working with private telecom service providers to expand their broadband services. For Instance, MNT Nigeria Communications launched its home broadband services to accelerate broadband penetration in alignment with the federal government to achieve over 70% of broadband penetration by the end of 2025.
• Key players in the telecom market are expanding their broadband networks. For instance, Phase3 Telecom partnered with YahClick to offer high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband services. Through this partnership, satellite broadband services will be available throughout Nigeria.
• For instance, Curvalux signed an agreement with Communication Trend Limited (CTL) to deliver affordable high-speed broadband access to Nigeria. Curvalux’s fixed wireless access (FWA) technology is deployed in Lagos to offer high-speed broadband connectivity services to customers. The demand for deploying FWA solutions will significantly grow, creating new opportunities for the telecom market.
• Fixed broadband penetration will expected to increase during the forecast period, driven by ongoing efforts by the government to expand fixed broadband coverage and services across the country, particularly in rural areas. According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Nigeria ranked 144th with a median fixed broadband download speed of 10.95 Mbps in October this year.

• Increasing mobile subscribers will significantly increase the demand for voice services. Voice service providers, such as MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, offer voice-over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) for customers, thus creating new growth opportunities for the telecom market. For instance, in April 2022, MTN Nigeria launched Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) call service.
• For instance, Tizeti launched the WifiCall.ng (internet voice) calling platform. WifiCall is a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) subscription service that allows customers to make unlimited voice calls on phones. Such initiatives will increase demand for WiFi voice services.
• Customers slowly migrate from 2G and 3G to 4G wireless voice. Next-generation wireless voice service will enable handsets supporting video calling to benefit from video calling over an LTE network.
• According to GSMA, smartphone adoption in the country nearly doubled from 44% in 2014 to 64% in the last year. The increasing smartphone adoption will further increase the demand for wireless voice services.
• The penetration of voice services is likely to increase during the forecast period, driven by the introduction of high-speed voice services across the country, particularly in urban and rural areas. According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Nigeria ranked 99th with a median mobile download speed of 19.87 Mbps in October this year.

The Nigerian telecom market is moderately fragmented due to ongoing partnerships and recent advancements in the market. Some major players in the market studied include MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Gloabacom, Orange, and InterC Network.

In September 2022, Tecnotree signed a multi-million-dollar deal with MTN Nigeria to deploy 5G digital transformation.

In April 2022, MTN Nigeria launched VoLTE services, providing customers with improved HD voice quality, reduced background noise, and faster call connectivity.

In March 2022, Airtel Nigeria upgraded its mobile network infrastructure nationwide to improve voice and data service quality for its customer base. As part of the upgrade program, Airtel upgraded its 2G and 3G sites to 4G technology.

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support