Nigeria’s northern geopolitical zone mobile subscribers increased by 7.9 million in 2020, the latest figures published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown.
According to the report showed that the 51.52 million subscribers recorded in 2019 have increased to 59.48 million in 2020.
This represents a 15.5% increase in a year.
In North-west, Kano State increased its mobile subscriber base from 10.99 million recorded as of Q4 2019 to 12.67 million mobile subscribers at the end of the year.
Kaduna State follows with a total subscriber base of 8.71 million subscribers, growing its numbers by 582,640 from 8.12 million recorded in the reference period.
In the North Central region, it had new 6.58 million mobile subscribers in 2020 to stand at 37.07 million subscribers as of Q4 2020. The region accounts for 18.1% of the total subscribers in the country.
The Federal Capital territory tops the list with a total subscriber base of 9.01 million, a 3.3 million increase compared to 5.7 million recorded in 2019.
Niger State followed with a total of 6.53 million subscribers compared to 6.22 million recorded in the previous period.
In South-west consisting of 6 states had about 28.5% increase. The region had about 58.37 million subscribers as of Q4 2020. Lagos State tops the list in this region with a total of 24.88 million subscribers as at Q4 2020, while it recorded an of 1.33 million subscribers in the year 2020.
The south-south geo-political region of Nigeria with 6 states accounted for 14.5% of the total mobile subscribers in the country. As of Q4 2020, the total mobile subscribers in the south-south region stood at 29.6 million.
Generally, the number of mobile subscribers increased by 19.9 million subscribers from 184.7 million recorded in 2019 to 204.6 million in 2020.
This increase can be attributed to the increased usage of mobile gadgets and the internet in 2020 due to the covid-19 induced lockdown which necessitated a work from home policy by most organisations.
Also, most businesses were forced to shut down during this period, including transportation, leaving mobile phone usage as a coping mechanism and the only means to reach out to relatives and friends.
