1. 2014, March
David H. Page, Managing Partner
Eniola Oyinmomo, Researcher, Lagos, Nigeria
Mobile Broadband Trends :
Nigeria

2. Mobile Broadband Trends: Nigeria
• Executive Summary
• Defining mobile broadband in Nigeria
• Nigeria Mobile: not too early
• Landscape:
– Operators
– Common devices and OS
– Identifying the early adopters
• Payments in Nigeria: the nuances and trends for mobile
• Satellite v. cable in Nigeria: which is larger
• Appendix

3. Executive Summary
• Broadband in Nigeria means “wireless”
• Government support of mobile broadband will ensure ubiquity
and 4G/LTE infrastructure
• Smart phone adoption by Nigerians is large and growing
• Now is the time to build infrastructure

4. Defining Mobile Broadband
• Up to now, the term broadband referred to high-speed
communications networks that connected end-users at a data
transfer speed greater than 256 Kbit/s.
• As such, broadband within the Nigerian context is now
defined as an internet experience where the user can access
the most demanding content in real time at a minimum speed
of 1.5 Mbit/s.

5. The licensing, rollout and upgrade of Mobile networks based on 2.5G (GPRS), EDGE,
UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, HSUPA, HSDPA and CDMA EV-DO technologies, as well as, the
introduction of smartphones and other mobile devices with seamless capability to
connect the internet have been responsible for the current growth in internet access
and usage recorded in Nigeria.
This trend will receive further boost with the wider rollout of 3G, across the country
making it possible for many subscribers to access broadband internet using their mobile
devices. Currently outside the key cities of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, broadband
access is generally unavailable. While the investment in the deployment of 4G/LTE
broadband networks is still being awaited, operators have continued to deploy 3.5G,
3.75G, and HSPA technologies.
Mobile broadband is therefore emblematic of the potential quick win for broadband
adoption and usage in Nigeria.
Wireless technology is the primary delivery medium for
broadband access in Nigeria

6. • There are 167M people living in Nigeria;
• Mobile penetration in Nigeria stands at 71.8% or 127m
active mobile subscribers (Jan '14);
• Mobile web internet users now stand at 64.2M people (Dec
'14);
• Informa WCIS estimates that at the end of 2012 about 6
percent of the population has 3G; translating to ~10.5
million 3G subscribers in Nigeria
Nigeria Mobile: at a glance

7. Nigeria: 8th largest mobile market in the world
• Nigeria is the largest mobile market in Africa and the eighth
largest in the world
• Mobile subscribers outnumber fixed lines almost 219:1 and
PC penetration is very low
• Recently surpassed 127 million active mobile subscriptions,
which equates to around 72 percent of the population
• Mobile device the de facto communications device for calls,
messaging and accessing the Web
• It is common for individuals to have more than one SIM card
and handsets with multiple SIMs

8. Nigeria Mobile: Operators
There are four main mobile network operators in Nigeria:
1. MTN Nigeria is the most popular operator, with 2/5 of mobile
subscribers,
2. Globacom (1/5),
3. Celtel/Airtel (1/5),
4. EMTS (Etisalat) (1/10)-all GSM
Note: Etisalat has a lot of potential, as it has the highest share of
mobile porting-in incidence and lowest share of mobile porting-
out incidence.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

9. • 74 percent of mobile visits come from Nokia devices,
according to StatCounter, while the top 10 handsets with the
Opera mobile browser installed are all Nokia.
• Culturally, Nigeria is very diverse with more than 280
languages.
• Nokia is the only device manufacturer to take this on board
and has integrated the three major languages, Igbo, Yoruba
and Hausa, into its handsets
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)
Nigeria Mobile: Devices

10. Top 10 Mobile Device Vendors in Nigeria
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

11. Top 8 Mobile OS Systems in Nigeria
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

13. How Nigerian’s use their mobile phones
2012
Mobile phone use Proportion using
SMS 44%
Gaming 16%
Music 14%
Email 2%
Social Networking 2%
Internet 2%
Location Less than 1%
Source: TNS Mobile Life via: mobiThinking
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)
How Nigerians use their devices

14. Identifying Nigerians using Mobile Broadband
now?
• When it comes to user adoption of broadband some
demographic trends are clear:
• Mobile broadband use is more common and highly
prevalent amongst youths and digitally literate adults in
major metropolitan cities like Lagos.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

15. Telecoms’ infrastructure:
focus for Nigeria’s growth
• The level of infrastructure in Nigeria remains an issue, but the
telecoms sector is seeing rapid improvements following
sustained investment from local and foreign investors.
• The installation of fiber-optic cables to connect the country to
rest of the world
• Government is on a drive to transform country into a
knowledge-based economy.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

16. Why is the Nigerian Government so Involved?
• It has been empirically proven that every 10% increase in
broadband penetration in developing countries results in a
commensurate increase of 1.3% in GDP.
• The Government will pursue, by the end of 2017, a fivefold
increase in broadband penetration over the 2012 penetration
rate.
• On a national scale, it is the intention of government to
facilitate full rollout by operating companies of 3G networks
as a minimum on all base stations by 2015.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

17. By 2020, Nigeria will have a large, strong, diversified, sustainable and competitive economy
that effectively harnesses the talents and energies of its people and responsibly exploits its
natural endowments to guarantee a high standard of living and quality of life to its citizens”.
This Vision reflects the intent of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to become one of the top
twenty economies in the world by the year 2020, with a principal growth target of no less
than $900 billion in GDP and a per capita income of no less than $4000 per annum.
Vision20:2020; Nigeria Top Twenty World
Economy by 2020.
…pervasive broadband access is a critical requirement for
Nigeria to achieve this vision.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

18. Nigeria’s Targets for broadband growth
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

19. Nigeria’s Targets for broadband growth
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

20. Payments in Nigeria: Telecoms
• In the telecoms sector, prepaid subscription accounts for over
80% of total mobile subscription for both voice and data even
though more priority is given to postpaid subscribers.
• The postpaid subscribers, more often than not, fall in the
middle to upper class. They are usually the managers,
directors, CEOs and medium to large scale entrepreneurs.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

21. Payments in Nigeria: Telecoms (cont’d)
• Nigerians prefer the prepaid pay-as-you-go method
• The Nigerian economy is generally cash based, where 65% of
transactions occur outside the bank.
• In 2012, over 85% of financial transactions were cash
• In June 2012, the CBN introduced the cashless policy where
limits were placed on daily cash withdrawals, in order to raise
the adoption of e-payments and card or PoS purchases.
August 2013, CBN reported that card purchase was growing at
a rate of over 30% and electronic payment was growing at
about 25%.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

22. Payments in Nigeria: Mobile Money
• There are 18 licensed mobile money operators
• Since commencement of mobile money operations in 2012,
overall performance is as given below:
Total number of Subscribers 9,989,297
Total number of Agents enrolled 67,494
Total volume of Transactions 11m
Total value of Transactions N105bn
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

23. Payments in Nigeria: Mobile Money “Volume”
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

24. Payments in Nigeria: Mobile Money “Value”
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

25. Satellite vs. cable – Penetration and
Subscribers
• Nigeria has very few Cable TV networks but much local
coverage. This is due to the lack of infrastructure;
• Two Pay TV technologies are popular in Nigeria:
1)Satellite TV and 2)DVB-T (Terrestrial) TV;
• Most networks are carried via Satellite TV, because of
ease of deployment. Startimes and GOtv are 2 pay TV
networks using DVB-T, which requires no dish (thus
cheaper);
• It is estimated that 4.7% Nigerians owned/had access to
Satellite TV;
• There were 1.35 million PayTv subscribers In Nigeria,
putting the penetration rate at 0.80%. The subscriber
base is predicted to rise to 4.36 million by 2018.
Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

26. Focus Market: Nigeria (cont’d)

27. Appendix

28. Broadband penetration for each country now and
predicted; (Mobile)
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Botswana 11.50% 12.99% 14.68% 16.59% 18.75% 21.18%
Namibia 12.94% 15.52% 18.63% 22.36% 26.83% 32.19%
S. Africa 41% 50.43% 62.03% 76.307% 93.84% 115.42%
DRC 1.68% 2.26% 3.053% 4.11% 5.54% 7.47%
Ghana 17.11% 23.26% 31.64% 43.03% 58.53% 79.60%
Liberia 3.79% 4.85% 6.21% 7.95% 10.17% 13.02%
Nigeria 32.88% 36.79% 71.22% 90.04% 110.74% 136.22%
Ethiopia 1.48% 2.01% 2.74% 3.72% 5.06% 6.89%
Kenya 34.56% 44.31% 57.15% 73.17% 95.07% 122.62%
Zimbabwe 17.09% 18.95% 21.01% 23.30% 25.85% 28.66%

29. Broadband Adoption chart for African countries (Sub-
Saharan)
Low
Medium
High

32. Microwave infrastructure has fast become the dominant medium for delivering long distance
transmission and in many cases backhaul capability. The following charts show the explosive
growth in the deployment of base stations or microwave towers across the country. The
subsequent success led to increased mobile service and mobile internet service penetration.
Microwave infrastructure

33. African Regions
Western Africa:
• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Cape Verde
• Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Liberia
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Togo
Eastern Africa:
• Burundi
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Kenya (Nairobi)
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Rwanda
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

34. African Regions (cont’d)
Middle (Central) Africa :
• Angola
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Gabon
• Republic of the Congo
• São Tomé and Príncipe
Southern Africa :
• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Namibia
• South Africa
• Swaziland

35. African Regions to activate
• Botswana (Pop: 2M)
• Namibia (Pop: 2.2M)
• South Africa (Pop: 53M)
• DRC (Pop: 75M)
• Ghana (Pop: 26M)
• Liberia (Pop: 4M)
• Nigeria (Pop: 177M)
• Ethiopia (Pop: 87M)
• Kenya (Pop: 43M)
• Zimbabwe (Pop: 13M)

36. Varying experiences a user can have on 3G versus 4G LTE.

37. In order, Popular TV genres
in Africa
• Soap Operas
• Infomercials
(advertisements)
• Educational
• Drama
• Actuality
• News
• Movies
• Religion
• Variety
• Magazine
• Sitcom
• Children
• Reality
• Sports
• Music
• Competition
• Documentaries

38. Pay TV genres for Africans
• Soapies
• Movies
• Reality
• Music
• News
• Education
• Actuality
• Variety

39. • Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry was ranked third for globally
generated revenue in 2011.
• It generated close to N126.4 billion (about U$D800 million) in the
three years spanning 2010- 2012.
• The two film industries ahead of Nigeria’s are the US’ Hollywood
and India’s Bollywood.
• The global film and entertainment industry generated N14.5
Trillion (U$D90.6 billion) in 2010. This was projected to increase
to N16.2 trillion (U$D102.7 billion) in 2012.
Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry

40. Notes