Figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown that telecommunications sector growth continued to slow down from the last quarter of 2020 leading into Q1, 2021.
According to the statistics from the NCC, the major telecom operators collectively witnessed a 5.95 per cent growth slump.
The statistics showed that Airtel dropped by 9.45 per cent, MTN slumped by 5.99 per cent; Globacom by 3.50 per cent, and 9mobile by 1.01 per cent.
In total, about 15 million active lines were lost, which resulted into loss of billions of naira by the operators.
Interestingly, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced last week that the ICT sector grew by 7.86 per cent in Q1 2021, 1.07 per cent lower than the 8.94 per cent recorded in Q1 2020, and 8.46 per cent lower than the rate recorded in Q4 2020.
The sector contributed 14.91 per cent to aggregate real GDP in Q1, higher than the contribution of 14.07 per cent in Q1 2020 but lower than the 15.06 per cent recorded in Q4 2020.
Also for the first time since its launch on April 22, 2013 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), telecommunications operators in the country conducted no porting activities in the first three months of the year.
Statistics from the NCC showed that MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile recorded zero number porting activities from January to March on both incoming and outgoing platforms.
This can be traced to the policy mandating telecom subscribers to link up their SIMs with their National Identity Number (NIN) recently.
Further analysis of the statistics showed that in 2020, telecoms operators welcomed 182,958 subscribers to their various networks, while 181,171 ported out.
