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Nigeria’s economy got a N1.34 billion lift from the booming telecommunication sector in the first quarter of the year to keep pace with the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP – the country’s statistical board, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has revealed.
The sector records a monthly growth rate average of 0.95 percent. The first quarter of 2015 recorded a real growth rate of 5.36 percent, a rise of 0.61 percentage points from the 2014 average growth rate of 4.75 percent. The annual growth rate averaged 46.29 percent between 2002 and 2014. The highest rate was in 2004 at 153.65 percent and the lowest rate of 8.53 percent was in 2011, says local business daily, BusinessDay quoting the NBS.
Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined to 3.86 percent in the first quarter. The ICT sector had a 10.3 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in 2014, way ahead of South Africa at 6.5 percent and Kenya at 9.5 percent.
The NBS said that the sector recorded a significant growth in the subscriber base from 2.27 million in 2002 when Nigeria issued its first mobile licence to 143.05 million at the end of the first quarter. Of the four telecoms providers, MTN dominated with 61.21 million subscribers, or 42.84 percent of the market. Globacom followed with 30.03 million subscribers, representing 21 percent, while Airtel Nigeria had 28.6 million subscribers or 20.4 percent, followed by Etisalat Nigeria with 22.3 million subscribers or 15.69 percent.
