Nigerians Spent More Than N100 Billion On Browsing In 2020 

According to the report, data usage in 2020 climbed from 123,648 terabytes in 2019 to 205,880.4 terabytes in 2020.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

Nigeria’s telecommunications business grew significantly in 2020, with Nigerians consuming a total of 205,880.4 gigabytes of data in the year. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s 2020 subscriber/network data report.

Using the NCC’s 2020 average cost of N487.18 for 1GB of data, Nigerians spent at least N100.3 billion on internet data in the review year.

According to the report, data utilization in 2020 climbed from 123,648 terabytes in 2019 to 205,880.4 terabytes in 2020, a 66.5 percent rise over the review period. According to the research, broadband penetration peaked at 45.93 percent within the year.

A cursory examination of the report revealed that revenue generated by GSM operators increased by 12.33 percent from N2.02 trillion in the previous year to N2.27 trillion in the review period, while revenue generated by internet service providers increased by 28.31 percent from N53.75 billion in 2019.

]The enormous increase in the volume of internet data consumed in 2020 can be attributed in large part to the Federal Government’s lockdown measures enacted in reaction to the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic.

• During the lockdown, Nigerian businesses were forced to be innovative and design working models that operated virtually, basically depending on the internet to carry out their day-to-day activities. This increased the usage of the internet as meetings, negotiations, and official functions were moved to virtual platforms.
• Also, seminars were converted to webinars. Most organizations used online virtual platforms such as Zoom, and Teams amongst others to facilitate webinars and their annual general meetings (AGM), which of course depended on the use of internet data, both on the part of the organisation and individual listeners.
• In the entertainment scene, the internet played a major role, as many social media comedians took the stage to feed Nigerians with comedy skits on their various social media handles as the lockdown kept people at home, thereby fetching the content developers returns as Nigerians continued to stream these contents. Similarly, music concerts were also moved online during this period of the pandemic.

What the NCC said

The report partly reads, “The Nigerian Telecom Industry witnessed significant growth that impacted positively in spite of the recession brought about by COVID-19. The sector lifted the economy out of recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, contributing 12.45% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

It also highlighted that mobile network operators (MNOs) received massive investments in the 4G rollout of services, which resulted in improved growth.

“The increase in data usage is directly linked to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted normal activities, and most functions had to be held virtually including schools, Corporate Meetings etc.,” the report stated further.

Meanwhile, as of the end of December 2020, out of a total of 546,023 users served by ISPs, 4,032 were subscribed to speeds ranging from 256Kbps to 2Mbps, accounting for 0.7 % user base; 21,985 were subscribed to speeds ranging from 2 to 10Mbps, accounting for 4 % user base; and 520,006 were subscribed to speeds of 10mbps or higher, accounting for 95 %.

Similarly, the total number of active internet subscriptions climbed by 22.5 %, rising from 125.98 million in December 2019 to 154.29 million by the end of December 2020.