The recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Globacom drove the impressive growth recorded by Nigeria’s telecoms industry in the third quarter of last year.
According to NBS, the sector grew by 23 per cent due to internet subscriber growth which stood at 151,063,413 subscribers at the end of September, 2020. The figure for the same period of 2019 was 122,792,291.
Globacom recorded the highest growth in data subscribers among the operators. It led with 33.2 per cent growth in its internet subscriber base between September, 2019, and September, 2020. MTN which came second had a growth percentage of 24.5 during the same period. Airtel, on its part, recorded 21.4 per cent growth year-on-year. On the other hand, the NBS report showed that the fourth operator, 9mobile, witnessed a decline during the period under review. The network suffered a 14 per cent slide in its internet subscriber figures between September, 2019, and September, 2020.
Glo data services are backed by the huge capacity international submarine cable called Glo-1, a wholly owned facility that brought unprecedented bandwidth from Europe to Nigeria and other West African countries. It is believed that Globacom’s outstanding performance in the sector is attributable to the continuing network upgrade which has enhanced data service delivery to its subscribers.