Almost 50% of Nigerians don’t have access to a telephone

Approximately 46.7% of Nigerians don’t have access to any telephone services, even after the nation saw an increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers across various telecommunications networks in the last ten years.

This is according to a study done by Daily Trust, who also discovered that subscriber numbers have risen from 400 000 in 2001 to almost 100 million in 2011 – a figure that represents roughly 53.3% of the population. That leaves 73 million Nigerians (46.7%) without any means of technological communication.

“Indeed, as telecoms services have expanded in the last 10 years, so did the level of service uptake by Nigerians, especially where operators have been able to roll out service.

The remaining addressable market is in the rural areas and we urge the operators to expand services to these rural dwellers,” said Chairman of the Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo.

“The remaining 73 million represents a huge market opportunity to be tapped into by the telecoms companies by channelling their infrastructure investment to the rural areas where basic telephony/voice service still remains a yearning demand by the rural dwellers,” The Daily Trust wrote.

Charlie Fripp – Acting online editor