Nigeria’s Broadband Internet Penetration Rises to 48% in January 2023

A recent report by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) revealed that the country’s broadband penetration rose to 48% in January 2023, with 92,011,259 subscriptions recorded.

Broadband penetration rose by 7% year-on-year from 41% reported in January 2022 to 48% in January 2023. This report is however contrary to the claims made by President Muhammadu Buhari in February this year, that Nigeria has attained 100% broadband internet penetration.

President Buhari disclosed that the federal government performed excellently in terms of achieving wider broadband for Nigerians, from 23 percent coverage in 2019, noting that the administration increased the broadband penetration by 77 percent in 2022 and 100 percent in 2023.

He further added that broadband internet services can currently be accessed everywhere in the country, whether in urban or rural areas.

Meanwhile, analysts predict that Nigeria would need 45 more months to achieve its target of reaching a national broadband penetration of 70% by 2025. It is interesting to note that Nigeria’s active telephone subscribers have risen to 226,226,754 and the tele density figure (active subscribers over the estimated population stands at 118.51%. This signifies a 5% increase in active telephone subscribers, Investors King reports.

According to the NCC, before the ban on new SIM in 2020, the country has been recording a one percent increase each month, as the mobile network operators continued to push for the deployment of 4G service across the country. Experts and NCC predict that the share of the Nigerian population that uses the internet via any device at least once a month is expected to grow up to 60 percent, approximately in 2026.

On the other hand, Nigeria’s minister of communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami has disclosed that broadband is key to reviving the Nigerian economy. Citing reports from the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, he stated that 10 percent of broadband penetration in any country would improve its GDP by at least 4.6 percent.

He stated that Nigeria’s Broadband penetration addresses three of the eight priorities that the federal government assigned to the federal ministry of communications and digital economy, and the parastatals under its purview for implementation.

According to him, the implementation of the plan would lead to the creation of jobs, improved socioeconomic development, and sustained growth amongst others. He believes that digital technology would offer Nigeria to grow and diversify its economy from the over-dependence on oil and gas.