Telecommunications (Telecom) companies in Nigeria grew revenue to ₦7.67 trillion in 2024, boosted by increased demand for data services, higher subscription rates, and expanded enterprise solutions.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) disclosed this in its 2024 Subscribers/Network Performance Report, released on Wednesday, November 12.
It shows that the telecom companies’ revenue increased by 44.7 per cent compared to ₦5.30 trillion in 2023.
Their operating expenses jumped by 85 per cent to ₦5.85 trillion from ₦3.16 trillion in 2023.
According to the NCC, Right of Way (RoW) charges, alongside a surge in inflation, foreign exchange pressures, and rising energy costs, pushed up the telecom companies’ operating expenses.
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“Most Licensees complained of high Right of Way (ROW) fees, harsh microeconomic operating employment and rising inflation. However, the NCC has been able to secure zero Right of Way (ROW) fees in some States in 2024,” NCC stated.
Pinnacle Daily reports that a RoW fee is a charge paid by telecom operators to deploy fibre-optic cables across roads and public spaces.
In the year under review, the commission said it was able to secure zero ROW fees for the telcos.
It had recently hinted at five states’ willingness to waive the RoW charges for telecom operators, noting Adamawa, Bauchi, Enugu, Benue, and Zamfara as the states.
Before then, six states- Anambra, Katsina, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Osun, and Plateau – have waived the RoW fees to aid the acceleration of broadband infrastructure deployment in the country.
A cursory look at the NCC report also revealed that GSM operators spent ₦2.7 trillion on capital expenditure, ₦4.57 trillion on operating costs, while earning ₦5.32 trillion in revenue.
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Fixed wired capital expenditure stood at ₦60 million with operating cost of ₦267.18 million and revenue of ₦410.44 million.
The Internet Service Provider spent ₦13.8 billion on capital expenditure, ₦196.3 billion on operating costs and earned a revenue of ₦165.6 billion.
While Value Added Service operators earned ₦83 billion, they spent ₦2.75 billion on capital expenditure and ₦79.9 billion on operating expenses.
The NCC stated further that collocation and infrastructure sharing players spent ₦174.4 billion on capital expenditure, N961.9 billion on operating expenses and recorded ₦2 trillion revenue.
It added that other telecom operators spent ₦1.67 billion on capital expenditure and ₦38.2 billion on operating cost while earning ₦49.5 billion.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
