New operator targets Nigeria’s $80 billion telecoms market

A new telecommunications operator is poised to enter Nigeria’s $80 billion telecoms industry because the fifth largest firm.

Specifically, Orange, the most important telecommunications operator in France, says it's planning to expand its operations to Nigeria, and South Africa .

Orange Chief military officer (CEO), Stéphane Richard, told Les Echos newspaper that the corporate believes it might enjoy having a wider footprint in Africa, and can give itself a couple of months to form a possible move.

“It could add up to be in economies like Nigeria and South Africa . If one considers there are things to try to to , the time-frame i'm considering is quite a couple of months than a couple of years,” he said

The coming of those operators spurred what's today called ‘telecom revolution’. before 2001, Nigeria could only boast of about 425,000 phone lines, mostly analogue. The country was then ranked among Afghanistan and other war-ravaged and economically-strangled nations in terms of telecom development. Within the past 18 years, the amount of active phone lines within the country has risen to over 180 million.

Reacting to the event , a telecoms analyst, Kehinde Aluko, said market opportunities are still very huge in Nigeria, and therefore the coming of another operator, an enormous one like Orange would further deepen the competition and ensure subscribers are offered the simplest of services.

According to him, many things can still happen within the sector estimated to price $70 billion. “Nigeria telecom has bolted from the stacks of inertia unlike other sectors. during a season of recession which made other sectors of the economy to slip and steep, telecom bucked the trend. It remained resolute and resilient against centrifugal headwinds.”

Aluko said it's an enormous positive for the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government that at a time the economy dipped south, telecom stayed up north with pleasant ensigns of a gorgeous tomorrow.

“Besides, it's remained attractive for investors. Many reasons account for this – largest population (market) in Africa, growing bourgeoisie (workforce) of 23 per cent of population, and 37 per cent youth population within the age group of 15-35 years. there's also a huge field for broadband services opportunity, growing e-commerce, e-banking, etcetera and a life-style that encourages communication (both voice and data); there's still more room for investors,” he stated.