TheCable

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the number of active mobile subscriptions in the country has reached 220,715,961 as of August 2023.

Umar Danbatta, executive vice-chairman of the NCC, spoke on Thursday at the 18th Abuja International Trade Fair organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).

Danbatta, represented by Umar Alkasim, NCC’s director of consumer affairs bureau, said telecommunication empowers individuals, connects businesses, and enables governments to provide essential services efficiently.

He said the NCC has continuously put a number of regulatory measures to ensure seamless access by Nigerians to telecommunications services.

“In Nigeria today, the number of active mobile subscriptions reached 220,715,961 as of August 2023, while Teledensity stood at 115.63 per cent at the same period,” he said.

“Also, the number of active Internet subscribers was 159,034,717 with broadband penetration at 45.57 per cent as of August 2023.

“In this new environment, the competitiveness of Nigerian businesses depends on their ability to leverage on new technologies by acquiring the necessary digital skills to do business on an international scale. This in turn benefits the economy financially.

“The NCC continues to create a conducive environment that stimulates deployment of robust telecoms/broadband infrastructure for improving the quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) for telecoms consumers, be it individuals or corporates.

“This is because, as a country, we need robust telecoms infrastructure that will help our industries transit to becoming Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-driven if we hope to be digitally competitive on the global stage.”