Nigeria’s telecommunications industry reduced its workforce by 383 employees in one year as operators faced a steep rise in operating expenses, according to reports from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The NCC’s 2023 and 2024 Year-End Performance Reports show that total staff strength across licensed operators dropped from 17,882 workers in 2023 to 17,499 in 2024, reflecting job losses across key market segments.
The reduction occurred in the same year operators’ operating costs increased from N3.16 trillion in 2023 to N5.85 trillion in 2024, marking an 85.35% year-on-year rise. The Commission cited higher energy costs, inflation, foreign exchange pressures, and multiple charges by state and local authorities as the main drivers of the surge in expenditure. Although the NCC secured zero Right-of-Way fees in some states, operators continued to report high network deployment and maintenance costs.
“Most Licensees complained of high Right of Way (ROW) fees, harsh micro economic operating employment and rising Inflation,” the NCC noted.
GSM, ISP and VAS operators account for most job cuts
A breakdown of the employment data shows that GSM operators led the workforce reduction, cutting staff from 7,212 to 6,658. Internet Service Providers also reduced their staff count from 5,589 to 5,473, while Value-Added Service operators reduced theirs from 813 to 713. Fixed-line operators recorded a slight increase from 268 to 272 workers.
There were gains in two categories. Collocation and Infrastructure Sharing providers increased their workforce from 1,574 in 2023 to 1,751 in 2024, while the “Others” category rose from 2,426 to 2,632. These increases did not offset the reductions recorded in the GSM, ISP and VAS segments.
The workforce shift followed a major drop in active voice subscriptions after the enforcement of the NIN-SIM linkage policy. Active subscriptions fell from 224.7 million in 2023 to 164.9 million in 2024, a 26.61% decline. Teledensity also dropped from 103.66% in 2023 to 76.08% in 2024.
According to the NCC, “As at December 2024, total active voice subscriptions for the entire market segments were 164,926,599 as against 224,713,710 recorded as at December 2023. This indicates a decline of 26.61% in 2024.
“The decline was attributed to the removal of Subscriber Identification Modules that are not linked to verifiable National Identification Numbers, and the rectification of a major discrepancy by a Mobile Network Operator explains the significant drop in Nigeria’s telecoms subscriber base.
“Teledensity also recorded a corresponding decline of 26.61%. Teledensity was 76.08% in 202,4 as against 103.66% recorded in 2023, which is as a result seen in the Voice segment above.
“From September 2023, teledensity is calculated based on the Nigerian Population Commission’s projected population figure of 216 million.”
CAPEX rises despite shrinking subscriber base
Despite the fall in subscriber numbers, capital investment rose sharply. CAPEX increased from N990.55 billion in 2023 to N2.90 trillion in 2024, driven by the higher cost of imported network equipment and network expansion projects.
Operators added new infrastructure during the period, increasing the number of towers from 39,356 to 39,880, base stations from 137,992 to 145,141, and expanding fibre deployment. Industry revenue rose from N5.30 trillion in 2023 to N7.67 trillion in 2024, representing a 44.70% growth.
Even with higher revenue, operators noted in their submissions that rising costs continued to affect planning and overall operations. Many firms cited energy costs, foreign exchange scarcity and multiple taxes as continuing constraints.
Telecoms contributed 14.40% to Nigeria’s GDP in Q4 2024, slightly higher than the 14% recorded in Q4 2023. The NCC added that the GDP rebasing exercise is expected to better capture the digital economy’s contribution going forward.
