Nigeria - Key Statistics, Telecom Market and Regulatory Overviews

Synopsis

Nigeria is one of the biggest and fastest growing telecom markets in Africa, attracting huge amounts of foreign investment, and is yet standing at relatively low levels of market penetration. Far reaching liberalisation has led to hundreds of companies providing virtually all kinds of telecom and value-added services in an independently regulated market. The mobile sector, which has seen triple digit growth rates five years in a row since competition was introduced, has been joined by a number of additional players under a new unified licensing regime which is expected to also boost the country’s underdeveloped Internet and broadband sector. Third generation mobile and WiMAX wireless broadband services are being rolled out at a rapid pace. After failing three times in the past, the privatisation of Nitel, the incumbent national telco, is scheduled to be finally completed in 2010.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Key statistics
  
• 3. Overview of Nigeria’s telecom market
  
  • 3.1 Telecom investments
    
• 4. Regulatory environment
  
  • 4.1 Nigerian Communications Commission Decree (NCCD) 1992
    
  • 4.2 National Telecommunications Policy (NTP) 1999, 2000
    
  • 4.3 Nigerian Communications Act 2003
    
  • 4.4 West African common regulatory framework 2005
    
  • 4.5 Class Licence policy extension 2007
    
• 5. Regulatory authority
  
  • 5.1 Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
    
    • 5.1.1 NCC Challenges and Direction
      
    • 5.1.2 2008 budget
      
• 6. Key regulatory issues
  
  • 6.1 Interconnect
    
  • 6.2 Consumer protection, quality of service
    
  • 6.3 Infrastructure sharing
    
  • 6.4 No regulation on state level
    
  • 6.5 National Information Technology Development (NITD) Fund
    
  • 6.6 National emergency numbers
    
• 7. Telecom sector liberalisation
  
  • 7.1 Globacom’s SNO licence
    
  • 7.2 Regional fixed wireless access (FWA) licences
    
  • 7.3 International gateway licences
    
  • 7.4 New unified licensing regime 2006
    
• 8. Privatisation of Nitel
  
  • 8.1 Nitel’s IPO
    
  • 8.2 Spectrum auctions
    
    • 8.2.1 3.5GHz
      
    • 8.2.2 800MHz
      
    • 8.2.3 3G mobile spectrum
      
    • 8.2.4 WiMAX
      
• 9. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Country statistics – 2010
• Table 2 – Fixed-line network statistics – September 2009
• Table 3 – Internet provider statistics – June 2009
• Table 4 – Internet subscriber and user statistics – 2008
• Table 5 – Mobile statistics – 2010
• Table 6 – National telecommunications authority

• Exhibit 1 – Regional FWA licensees