Airtel Nigeria Becomes Nigeria’s Second Most Subscribed Telco

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Airtel Nigeria has emerged the most consistent player in Nigeria as it grew its subscribers’ base to 41.3 million, a growth rate of 19.31 per cent Year on Year, YoY (September 2017-September 2018) to become Nigeria’s second most subscribed telecoms company, according to latest report by the Nigerian Communication Commission.

In the report, Globacom lost its second place position to Airtel even though they (Glo) grew by 9.39 per cent YoY to 40.85 million thus fallen by 10.75 per cent.

All through the quarters in the year, Airtel recorded a growth, averaging about 3.5 per cent making them the most consistent network for the year in question.

The year 2018 has been an interesting year for the telecoms industry with a total GSM subscriber base of near 162 million, according to the NCC.

The major highlights include Etisalat, one of the only four players, shutting down and took over by 9Mobile. Since September 2017, the telco’s total number of subscribers has been on an average decline of 2.8 per cent Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ).

In September 2018, NCC reported 9Mobile (Etisalat) subscriber base to be just a little above 15 million, which is less than half of Glo’s (in third place) subscribers base.

The sectors largest player, MTN Nigeria suffered several regulatory troubles and reputational damage in the second half of the year.

For instance, in Q3 (August) 2018, MTN was ordered to refund (fined) $8.1billion (N3 trillion) following claims that the company had illegally repatriated funds.

As such, the number of their subscribers dropped by more than 2 million between June and September to about 64 million which is a QoQ decline of about 3.5 per cent.

Yet, the company had a good run from September 2017 to March 2018, as it recorded YoY growth of 27.54 per cent, the highest in the sector.

Airtel Nigeria’s 41.3 million subscribers’ base as of September 2018 makes it to lead Glo by almost 500,000 subscribers.

Industry watchers have attributed Airtel latest growth to the company’s engaging advertisements, affordable and more reliable data plans can be thanked for this growth.

However, they still expressed doubt if Airtel would continue its rise to the top and ward off Glo’s ability to maintain its presence.

But to some others, MTN and Airtel’s growth seems unstoppable as they have expressed interest in the growing mobile money sector through their expected licensing for a Payment Service Bank.