Since the start of the “Telecoms revolution” Nigeria’s image in the global communication circuit has shot to the heavens. At international forums, international organisations have consistently cited the Nigerian telecom regulatory model and growth gradient as a template for others.
In recent years, Africa’s largest economy has been recognized during the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) conferences, which Nigeria has had the privilege of hosting twice since the advent of the telecom revolution. The reasons for this are not far-fetched. In the recent history of global telecoms, Nigeria has held the record for being the fastest growing mobile market in the world for five consecutive years; Nigerian telecoms, more than many elsewhere in the world, has recorded the highest return on investment; it has generated more jobs, steady jobs, and millions of ancillary jobs than any sector in the local economy. The industry has grown to being a major contributor to the country’s GDP. It has blossomed to well over $32 billion industry from a trifling $50 million in the year 2000.
During an event at the Lagos Business School, a keynote speaker, Dr. Doyin Salami, made it known that the telecoms and other services sectors have contributed 8.7 percent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP in 2015, with the country’s main economic stay, oil, accounting for 6.4 percent, which was occasioned by the drop in world oil price, which invariably affected the country’s economic growth pattern, oil accounted for 71 percent of the country’s export earnings against 54 percent in 2014 accounting for the government’s revenue.
The telecoms sector is a major stakeholder in the area of Foreign Direct Investment to the Nigerian economy, providing more than half of the country’s FDIs. Nigeria’s economy has been systematically and strategically diversified along the lines of technology and other services sector without Nigerians noticing.
The Nigerian telecoms sector is one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world and continues to attract significant foreign direct investment, with an estimated additional $6 billion invested between 2011 and 2013.
