Stakeholders in Nigeria’s telecom are currently worried over the continuous decline in investment in the industry.
They are worried that the decline may continue for years to come if measures are not put in place by the government to stem the tide.
The decline has also been limiting the operators’ annual capital expenditure and expansion of service, thus impacting the quality of services being delivered.
According to the stakeholders, the current situation around forex may further worsen the situation as investors are still uncertain about the government’s policy.
Besides, the telecom operators are disturbed that the current scarcity of forex would hamper 5G rollout in the country as licensed operators would have to import all the equipment required to expand the service.
The telecom industry report for 2022 which was recently released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that total investment inflow to the industry last year stood at $399.9 million.
This represents a 47% decline when compared with the $753 million recorded in 2021.
While the $753 million recorded in 2021 came as an increase compared with the $417.4 million recorded in the preceding year, the growth came because of the effect COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which saw economic activities reduced drastically across the globe.
