Increase in Active GSM Subscribers in Nigeria: Implication for SMEs

Sometime in June 2020, the Nigerian Communications Commission, the regulator of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria requested for entries from tech hubs, startups and innovation digital SMEs with promising and adaptable digital solutions that will aid in containing the impacts of pandemic and epidemic-prone diseases in Nigeria.

The top three startups with the most promising digital solutions will receive a grant of ₦3,000,000 from the commission to aid the development of these solutions in Nigeria.

Fast forward to August 2020, the NCC concluded its arrangement and awarded research grants to the tune of ₦9,000,000 to three deserving Nigerian startups with proposals for containing the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

The selection of three startups came from an evaluation of 282 entries in the NCC Covid-19 Virtual Hackathon.

Similarly, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta said during the virtual launch/ award ceremony that active GSM subscribers in Nigeria have increased from 184million in December 2019 to 199.3million in May 2020. In the same period internet subscription increased from 126million to 147million, while broadband subscription also increased from 72million to 80.2million, achieving a 40.02 percent penetration in the country.

The increase put the total active internet subscribers in the country at over 141million in May 2020 as against the 123million that was recorded in the comparable period of 2019. While new active users were recorded in the year ended May 2020, 10million of the total subscribers were added in the first five months of the year.

Potential Cause of Growth in Active GSM Subscribers

While Prof. Umar Danbatta didn’t give any reason for the rapid increase in active GSM subscribers in Nigeria, it’s safe to say that the Coronavirus pandemic in no small way accelerated the growth of active GSM subscribers in Nigeria as people were forced to go digital following the lockdown and restrictions of movement.

Analysis of the data by the regulator of the telecommunications industry, NCC, shows there was addition of more internet users in December 2019 and February and March of 2020 as the month saw an increase in active subscribers by 4million each.

Impact of Growth in GSM Subscribers on SMEs in Nigeria

It’s clear that Nigerians are adopting mobile phones at an impressive rate, which also coincide with the influx of cheaper smartphones from Asia and created a new and fast-growing income line for telecommunications companies who are now recording double-digit growth in data revenue.

Data compiled from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that telecommunications industry contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by a marginal 0.77 percent to 10.88 percent in Q1 2020, from 10.11 percent in the comparable quarter of 2019.

Of the total number of active internet users in Nigeria, 99.82 percent were on mobile. This growing trend of mobile phone users suggests a rise in commercial activity through sectors like e-commerce and applications like video streaming services and live sports matches.

All walks of life have been impacted. Another plausible example is the transportation sector which has seen a burst of new businesses that have only been made possible by the mass usage of mobile internet. Delivery and ride-hailing services have clearly benefited from this surge of mobile users in Nigeria.

What does this mean for SMEs?

SMEs and entrepreneurs can take advantage of this opportunity to:

• Create services tailored towards the ever growing mobile users in Nigeria.
• Leverage the power of social media to get the word out about their business and reach a wider audience.
• Create personalised content that offers tangible and immediate value to customers.

Similarly, this is a pointer to the increase in the number of potential target audiences who are using mobile phones. SMEs should strive to bring their offline businesses online to meet this growing number of prospects and improve their visibility. In order for you to win these prospects over or serve them satisfactorily, your business needs to be where your audiences are located.

This guarantees an overall inbound experience as you’ll be meeting your prospects where they want to be found and at the time of their choosing.

However, while social media has enhanced the power of mobile internet and for a mobile first country like Nigeria, it’s sad to know that only about 14 percent of mobile phone subscribers are active on social media.

Until we begin to understand the power we wield, many businesses will continue to miss out on the business opportunities that arise from understanding the mobile internet market in Nigeria.

According to Dr. Isa Pantami, “We need to produce what we need and consume what we produce”. To do this efficiently, we must leverage the power we possess as a mobile-first country and use online media to our advantage.