Undoubtedly the giant of Africa - with an estimated population of 194 million people - Nigeria remains the largest mobile market in the continent - and still has more potential for growth and for competing on a level-playing ground with the developed nations.
Although the economic growth of the country might not be as fast-paced as its counterparts’, it is full of hopes and promises. The mobile trends published in the 2017 Nigerian Mobile Report, by Jumia Nigeria - Africa’s biggest e-commerce platform, provided some convictions for this belief. In summary, the report examined how the market has democratised mobile internet use, the consumer behaviors driving increased smartphone adoption and the role of the different stakeholders within the sector.
Jumia is set to release the 2018 edition of the Mobile Report, which will focus on various mobile trends in the country and in Africa at large. And Juliet Anammah, CEO, Jumia Nigeria, is as excited as everyone else about the report.
The 2017 report revealed the following:
- There were about 150 million mobile subscribers - equivalent to 81% penetration (as a percentage of the population) in 2016.
- Internet penetration was at 18% with 216 million internet users. While Nigeria's internet penetration was much higher at 53% - its mobile subscription was similar to Africa's at 81% penetration (960 million mobile subscribers).
- To benchmark this data, a similar report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) put the number of subscribers by the end of December 2016, at 154 million. This subscriber base is a sum total of all the active subscribers for telephony services on each of the licensed service providers utilising different technologies. The difference in the number of subscribers presented by both reports can be attributed to the lack of accurate census in the country.
- Meanwhile, the percentage of internet penetration widened increasingly: the number of internet subscribers peaked at 97.2 million (more than half the number of mobile subscriptions) by end of 2016 - which represented a much higher penetration rate than the rest of Africa combined.
- The subscriber base of internet users in the country was predicted to increase by at least 30% by end of 2017. With the number of Nigerians having access to the internet - mostly through smartphones - growing in leaps and bounds, it’s a clear indication that there is a huge potential for e-commerce in the country. For instance, Jumia recorded 394% growth on the sales of smartphones between 2014 and 2016, mostly driven by an increasing range of lower smartphones price points. And 71% of website visitors on Jumia Nigeria in 2016 used their mobile phones to shop, whereas only 53% of Jumia African customers did so.
- Although, the contribution of the telecom and mobile sector to the country’s GDP was indeed a small fraction, according to a report by the NCC - only 9.13% was directly or indirectly accrued from the sector. Yet, it is worthy of note to mention that it was a great leap from the previous year.
- E-commerce companies like Jumia - present in 15 African markets - are facilitating the promotion and distribution of both high-end and low-end price points mobile phones in Nigeria. The NCC is not also relenting in exercising its power to regulate the operations of the licensed telecom operators especially in the area of voice & data tariff.
So, what is the future of the telecom and mobile sector in Nigeria? To witness an improvement over the previous years will require a collective, yet individual effort from both the private and public sectors. Primarily, the growth of the sector, among other things, depends on the availability of affordable mobile phones and data tariff.
The 2018 edition (4th report) of the Nigerian Mobile Report will be released of March 15 - 25, 2018; and secondly, it is the commencement of Jumia Mobile Week (an entire week dedicated to the sales of mobile phones at the best prices in Nigeria).
