The cost of operating in the Nigerian economy took a toll on telecommunication operators as they spent more than half of their N3.85trn revenue on operating costs.
The players in the industry spent N2.1trn on operating costs according to the 2022 end-of-year performance report released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
This operating cost represent a surge from the N1.72trn they spent in 2021. Their revenue in 2021 was N3.24trn.
The report showed that the players in the telecommunication industry spent N785.7bn on capital expenditure.
The big names in the Nigeria telecommunication industry are MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Airtel Africa Plc, Globacom Ltd, EMTS (formerly Etisalat), NTEL and Smile.
The report categorised the licenses by GSM, Fixed Wire, Internet Service Providers, Value Added Services, Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing, and other telecom operators.
During the period telecom operators generated N3.33trn revenue from GSM revenue services and spent N1.99trn of the earnings on operation cost. CAPEX for GSM services was N718.3m.
Revenue generated from fixed wire services was N385.1m while telecom service providers spent N841.7m on operating cost for the service. They spent N61.3m on capital expenditure.
Internet Service Providers generated N92.1bn and spent N71.2bn of the revenue on operating cost.
Operators providing Value Added Services earned N40.7bn revenue. They however spent N14.9bn on operating cost. Their CAPEX was N417.3m.
The total revenue generated from collocation and infrastructure Sharing by all the service providers was N3.2bn while N3.18bn was operating cost incurred in the course of providing the service.
Operators in the industry categorized as others generated N5.85bn revenue and spent N6bn. They also spent N524m on capital expenditure.
The report revealed that in 2022, Foreign Direct Investment dropped to $399.9m from $753m FDI recorded in 2021.
The NCC said, “Capital Inflow (Foreign Direct Investment) into the Nigerian Telecoms Industry in Year 2022 was approximately $399,905,531.38 against ,$753,044,446.35.”
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