Abuja – The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the number of GSM active voice subscription stood at 148.74 million at the end of the first quarter of 2016.
This is contained in the “Nigerian Telecommunications Sector Summary Report: State Disaggregated Data for first quarter of 2016’’ released by NBS in Abuja on Thursday.
The report said that MTN accounted for the largest subscribers of 57.04 million (or 38 per cent), followed by Glo with 34.60 million subscribers (or 23.2 per cent) and Airtel with 33.86 million (22.7 per cent).
“Lagos State accounted for the largest share of active voice subscribers with 19.04 million or 12.8 per cent of the total, followed by Ogun State with 8.53 million subscribers or 5.7 per cent.
“Kano State has 7.81 million subscribers or 5.25 per cent; Oyo State with 7.53 million subscribers or 5.06 per cent, then FCT and Rivers with 6.03 million (4.05 per cent) and 5.84 million (3.93 per cent) respectively.
“It is observed that all of the top five states with respect to active voice subscriptions had total subscribers in excess of their official population number as provided by the Nigerian Population Commission (NPC).
“The states have official population number as provided by NPC except for Kano and Rivers whose official population figures exceeded the number of active voice subscribers at the end of first quarter in 2016,’’ it said.
On the other hand, the report stated that Bayelsa recorded the smallest number of active subscribers with 1.11 million followed by Yobe – 1.40 million, Ekiti -1.42 million and Ebonyi -1.43 million in the quarter.
The report also stated that Lagos was the dominant market for all of the active voice telecom companies accounting for 10.05 per cent of MTN total voice subscribers.
It said that Lagos was followed by Ogun, Kaduna and Rivers with 10.03 per cent for Glo followed by Oyo, Niger, Ogun and FCT respectively.
“Lagos had 16.0 per cent for Airtel, followed by Ogun, Kano and Oyo states respectively while Lagos also had 19.1 per cent of Etisalat voice subscribers followed by Ogun, Kaduna and Rivers States,’’ the report said.
Meanwhile, the report said the number of active internet subscriptions stood at 92.4 million at the end of the quarter with MTN accounting for the largest share of 33.35 million (or 36.09 per cent).
The report said MTN was followed by Glo with 26.53 million subscribers (or 28.70 per cent and Airtel with 17.15 million, representing 18.56 per cent. (NAN)
