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Nigeria Experiences Major Mobile Subscriptions Growth

Nigeria Experiences Major Mobile Subscriptions Growth

Africa has experienced major growth of new mobile subscriptions during the first quarter of 2017, with nine million Africans signing up for new services during that time.

Out of 107 million new mobile subscriptions that were added globally, nine million were from Africa with three million of those from Nigeria alone, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility report.

In terms of the total mobile subscriptions globally, Africa now has 985 million, more than the total amount of subscriptions in Western Europe (520 million) and the Middle East (415 million) combined.

This makes Africa the fourth fastest growing market worldwide, with only India, China and the Asia-Pacific region boasting more mobile subscribers.

Nigeria tops Africa in mobile subscriptions

Nigeria’s three million new mobile subscriptions represent a third of the subscriptions added in Africa, showing a particular appetite for mobile in the West African nation.

The substantial amount of new subscriptions for Nigeria put the country among the top five nations in the world in terms of total additions in the first quarter, according to PremiumTimesNG.

The Ericsson report explained the factors behind Africa’s impressive mobile growth.

“In Middle East and Africa, where the penetration of mobile broadband is currently lower than in other regions, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is expected to increase significantly. Driving factors include a growing young population and more affordable smartphones,” the report read.

Niklas Heuveldop, chief strategy officer and senior vice president for technology and emerging business at Ericsson explained that growth is set to increase at a fast pace.

“By 2022, we anticipate that there will be more than half a billion 5G subscriptions, with a population coverage of fifteen percent. Mobile broadband continues to grow strongly. On average, more than one million new mobile broadband subscribers will be added every day up to the end of 2022,” Heuveldop said, according to ITNewsAfrica.