What Led To 388 Job Losses In Telecommunications Sector

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has provided an explanation what led to 388 job losses in the Telecommunications sector under one year.

This is even as 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 NCC has fingered steep rise in operating expenses as reason, with drop in total staff strength across licensed operators moving from 17,882 workers in 2023 to 17,499 in 2024.

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.

It said although the NCC secured zero Right-of-Way fees in some states, telecommunications sector 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.

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.

“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.

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“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”, the NCC report stated.