Nigeria: Press spotlights huge rise in data consumption, others

The report that data consumption reached 721,522 terabytes, the highest monthly consumption ever recorded, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Punch reports that data consumption reached 721,522 terabytes, the highest monthly consumption ever recorded, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Data obtained on Tuesday from the regulator’s website showed that this record surpassed December 2023, which stood at 713,200 terabytes.
Active Internet subscriptions totaled 161,977,883, reflecting a substantial increase from the 156,244,368 subscriptions recorded in January of the preceding year.
There are different service providers that make up the number of Internet subscriptions; they include telcos (mobile), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Fixed.
Mobile subscriptions accounted for 161,504,390, with Internet service providers—wired or wireless—recording 213,876 subscriptions, fixed wire connections totaling 21,437, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) reaching 238,180.
According to the NCC, January 2024 witnessed a decline of 1.9 million Internet users compared to December 2023, dropping from 163.8 million to 161.9 million.
Nonetheless, Internet penetration remained robust at 42.53 per cent, with broadband subscriptions totaling 92,195,937 million.
The data show that 2G connections remain predominant, but the proportion of 4G subscriptions has been steadily rising.
The newspaper says that the hike in Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Rate, also known as interest rate, from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent by the Central Bank of Nigeria will further accelerate the country’s inflation and lead to massive job cuts across the country, private sector operators stated on Tuesday.
The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, and the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists explained that the increase in MPR would worsen he private sector’s ability to access affordable credit.
While they described the interest rate hike as a move that would come with unintended negative consequences, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the MPR hike was a price that businesses would have to pay, given the current state of the economy.
The CBN again increased the MPR to 24.75 per cent from 22.75 per cent despite concerns about economic hardship.
The CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, announced this after the second Monetary Policy Committee meeting for the year in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the new rate was focused on reducing current inflationary pressures and ensuring sustained exchange rate stability.
Speaking with The PUNCH, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gabriel Idahosa, described the rate hike as a price that businesses would have to pay, given the current state of the economy.
He described the economy as ‘a house on fire’ owing to several policy missteps on the part of erstwhile CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Asked if the increase in interest rate would have a negative effect on the borrowing capacity of organised businesses, Idahosa said, “It is a no-brainer. Of course, it will. But this is a CBN that has been trying to put out fires caused by Emefiele and the rest.
“So, they have to first of all reduce the rate of the burning. It is a high price to pay. Once it is raining, either you have a lot of umbrellas or you take an aircraft and fly above the clouds, but if you don’t have a jet, then your option is limited to using an umbrella.”
On his part, the National Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists, Segun Kuti-George, worried that the interest rate hike would come with unintended negative consequences.
According to Kuti-George, when businesses are forced to borrow at higher rates, the cost of production will consequently increase. This, he said, will inevitably trigger an increase in the price of products.
In the same vein, the Managing Director of Cowry Asset Management Limited, Johnson Chukwu, said that with the interest rate increase, the lending rate would further increase.
He stated, “This increase also means that liquidity in the private sector will be constrained and tightened. The tightening of liquidity, inasmuch as it has a positive impact on the exchange rate, is likely going to have an adverse effect on productive activities.”
On his part, a professor of capital markets at Nasarawa State University, Uche Uwaleke, said, “Much as tightening is necessary at this time given elevated inflation, MPC should tighten policy incrementally and in a measured manner that optimises the CBN’s policy toolkit without undue reliance on the monetary policy rate.
“The decision by the MPC to increase the MPR by 200 bps makes it a total of 600 bps in just one month if one adds the 400 bps delivered in February. This is in addition to a very high CRR of 45 per cent representing sterilised bank deposits.
The Vanguard newspaper reports that former President Olusegun Obasanjo said unemployment was fueling the rising spate of banditry and kidnappings in Nigeria.
Obasanjo stated this at the 9th International Trade Exhibition & Conference on Agrofood, Plastics, Printing, and Packaging in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said, “Of course, if we are able to achieve this, it will improve our security. Part of our insecurity are men and women that are not properly engaged.
“If we are able to give them employment, there will be less of them getting involved in banditry, in kidnapping and in doing various other criminal activities that they get involved in,” he added.
The former president, who described himself as ‘a mad man for agriculture,’ said there was need to promote agribusiness for food security, nutrition security, employment, wealth creation, poverty elimination and income generation, particularly, foreign exchange.
He noted that the drive toward food security in the country must encapsulate food availability, affordability and accessibility.
The newspaper says that the financial sector’s credit to the economy grew Month-on-Month (MoM) by two percent to N114.7 trillion in February 2024 from N112.4 trillion in January 2024.
A breakdown of the Money and Credit Statistics report published by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday show that banks’ credit to the private sector increased MoM by six percent to N80.8 trillion in February from N76.2 trillion in January.
The report, however, stated that credit to the government fell MoM by 6.3 percent to N33.9 trillion in February from N36.17 trillion in January.
Despite the fall in credit to the government, the country’s recent debt profile data published by the Debt Management Office, DMO, showed that public debt stood at N97 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023 (Q4’23), representing a 10 percent increase from N87.8 trillion in Q3’24.
According to DMO, the increase in the debt stock was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the Federal Government to part finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
However, analysts at Cowry Asset Management limited expressed concern about the ongoing fiscal challenges faced by state governments.
They noted that the challenges are due to low revenue as against increased expenditure and debt servicing.
GIK/APA