Our chart today, produced using data from the Nigerian Communication Commissions (NCC), shows that Nigeria’s broadband subscriptions have increased steadily since October ’21, apart from a slight dip in February ’22. Mobile broadband accounts for a dominant share (over 99%) of Nigeria’s broadband connections due to the ease and relatively low cost of acquiring mobile lines. As such, the modest growth in broadband connections broadly mirrors the upward trend in the number of active mobile lines, and by extension, mobile internet subscriptions.

According to the data, total broadband connections climbed by 1% m/m and 13 y/y to approximately 86 million in September 2022.

This represents a penetration rate of 45.1% compared with 44.7% the previous month. This is the highest penetration rate since the beginning of the year.

The steady growth in broadband penetration is commendable due to its positive impact on economic activity, especially in sectors like commerce, finance, and education.

Based on the new national broadband plan 2020-2025, the federal government (FG) targets an ambitious broadband penetration rate of 70% by 2025.

To actualise this target, the NCC recently set up an NGN800bn backbone project to facilitate broadband infrastructure investments across the country.

To this end, an industry-wide committee was inaugurated to actualize the implementation of the project. Members of the committee include mobile network operators, infrastructure companies, and tower companies.

The Nigerian communications commission issued fresh licenses to 38 new companies, which increased the total number of internet service providers to 225 as of September 2022.  

We believe that the addition of new internet service providers is an important step towards achieving the target of 70% broadband penetration by 2025

However, considering the modest growth of new connections, the broadband target seems challenging in our view.