MTN Nigeria has announced a significant increase in the number of smartphones added to its network during the first quarter of 2023.
The company reported adding over 800,000 new smartphones to its network, bringing the smartphone penetration rate to 52.7% for the quarter.
This achievement demonstrates a growing demand for smartphones in Nigeria, with MTN Nigeria being one of the largest telecom companies in the country.
The Nigerian telecom market is multi-SIMed, which means that some of the new phones could have been on another network before their users switched to MTN’s network.
However, the overall growth in the number of smartphones on MTN Nigeria’s network signifies a positive trend in the country’s smartphone population.
Despite cash scarcity and inflation, MTN Nigeria’s overall revenue increased by 20.63% to N568.14bn in Q1 2023 from N470.98bn in the same period in 2022.
However, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, noted that the limited availability of cash affected customers’ ability to buy airtime, leading to cash shortages and impacting the company’s business operations.
In Q1 2023, MTN Nigeria’s data revenue (N227.84bn) surpassed its voice revenue (N277.61bn) for the first time.
This achievement is a significant milestone for the telecom company, highlighting the increasing adoption of online services among Nigerians.
Toriola attributes this achievement to the sustained growth of active data users and increased data usage, which has been enabled by MTN Nigeria’s investment in 4G and 5G coverage.
As of Q1 2023, MTN Nigeria’s 4G network covers 79.3% of the Nigerian population, up from 79.1% in December 2022.
Additionally, data usage per user increased by 31.3% to 7.8GB, further indicating a growing demand for data services in Nigeria.