Nigeria largest African market in four years

Details: Alec Barton; Category: Trends & Forecasts; 06 March 2006; 11396 views

Nigeria will become Africa 's largest telecommunications market, with penetration topping 41%, in four years time.

The country's Communications Minister, Cornelius Adebayo, and the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe, chose a stakeholder forum organised by the NCC and IT Telecom Digest Magazine to make their prediction.

Minister Adebayo reviewed the market to date: fewer than 500,000 lines in 1999 to over 20 million in December 2005, and investment up from US$50 million in 1999 to US$6 billion in 2003, and to more than US$10 billion in 2005. As if this was not enough, he estimated that Nigeria 's average growth rate of four million lines per annum makes her the fastest growing telecoms market in the world.

Key to this growth has been the regulatory structure in Nigeria : the unified licensing regime effective this month marks a logical and momentous milestone. Because of this unified system there will be further liberalisation of the sector, universal access will become reality, more opportunities will be created, growth will be further enhanced and quality of service improved.

For Vice-Chairman Ndukwe unified licensing will vindicate NCC's technology neutral policy, adding that it will continue to ensure that technology is adequately harnessed to maximise the deployment of vital infrastructure and services and to enthrone a regulatory framework that will facilitate innovation.

* Nigeria 's population is expected to top 150 million by 2010. Mobile penetration in 1999 was just 0.4%.