Nigeria data consumption in 2020 worth over N100B – NCC

The Nigerian telecommunication industry recorded significant growth in the year 2020, as Nigerians consumed a total of 205,880.4 terabytes worth of data in the year. This is according to the 2020 subscriber/network data report released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
According to the report, data usage in 2020 increased from 123,648 terabytes recorded in 2019 to 205,880.4 terabytes, representing a 66.5% increase during the review period. The report also outlined that broadband penetration peaked at 45.93% within the year.
Using the average cost of 1GB of data at N487.18, as announced by the NCC in 2020, Nigerians spent at least N100.3 billion on internet data in the year under review.
Experts explained that the significant surge in data consumption was as a result of the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the lockdown, businesses were forced to innovate and design working models that operated virtually, basically depending on the internet to carry out their day-to-day activities. This increased the usage of the internet as meetings, negotiations, and official functions were moved to virtual platforms.
Seminars bevame webinars. Most organizations used online virtual platforms such as Zoom, and Teams amongst others to facilitate webinars and business meetings.
In the entertainment industry, the internet played a major role, as many social media comedians took the stage to feed Nigerians with comedy skits on their various social media handles as the lockdown kept people at home, thereby fetching the content developers returns as Nigerians continued to stream these contents. Similarly, music concerts were also moved online during this period of the pandemic.
A cursory look at the report revealed that revenue generated by GSM operators increased by 12.33% from N2.02 trillion recorded in the previous year to N2.27 trillion in the review period, while internet service providers generated a sum of N68.96 billion in revenues, up 28.31% compared to N53.75 billion recorded in 2019.
Also, the total number of active internet subscriptions increased from 125.98 million subscriptions as of December 2019 to 154.29 million by the end of December 2020, representing an increase of 22.5%.