[Number of] Phones in Nigeria

At one point, almost monthly, we were updated on the teledensity of Nigeria [previous thread]. Does anyone know where telecom usage stands these days? Has it hit 20 million yet?

I guess it stands at 16 million now. Good to see the fixed wireless in keeping up with th erest of the world

16million Nigerians now use telephones – NCC

Jonah Iboma

Nigeria now has about 16million telephone subscribers, the Nigerian communications Commission has said.


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According to the Executive Vice chairman, NCC, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, the industry has witnessed an annual growth of over 100 per cent in her subscriber base since the issuance of digital mobile licenses in the country in 2001 and the eventual roll out of GSM services by two operators in the same year.

He revealed that with the development, Nigeria now has the highest number of fixed wireless penetration in Africa, with figures comparable with what obtains in the advanced countries.

But GSM mobile phones still dominate the phone use as they account for about 15million of the lines with fixed wireless accounting for one million.

Ndukwe, who spoke in Lagos at a seminar organised by the Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness and Development, on the Challenges of Corporate Governance in the Telecommunications Sector, on Thursday, noted that despite the impressive growth in the sector, it was not all smooth sailing.

According to him, poor corporate governance practices had remained a major problem in the sector, as many companies were not running their businesses according to global management standards.

He said, “Nigeria, no doubt has attracted the attention of the world because of the tremendous growth that has been witnessed in the ICT industry which can be summarised as follows: fully liberalized sector, annual growth of over 100 per cent in subscriber base, innovative approach to regulation and policy and using the world rather Africa for benchmarking. This has resulted in the generation of 16million lines, stable competition due to multiple operators and choice of network.”

According to him, the running of companies without good work ethics had led to various problems in the sector.

He noted: “We have seen both successful and not-so- successful telecommunications companies. We have also seen companies run on high ethical standards and values and others not run in similar fashion.”

http://odili.net/news/source/2005/aug/12/459.html

check this out : http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ni.html