Mobile telephone subscribers in Nigeria have spent a total of N253.7 billion on sending and receiving the short message service (SMS).
According to data by the regulator of the telecom sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the cash was spent between 2020 and last year.
In 2020, a total of 17,364,524,490.02 SMS were sent and received while in 2021, 20,126,551,822 SMS were sent and received on the network of mobile network operators (MNOs). Since one page of text message is pegged at N4, it meant that subscribers spent N69,458,097,760.08 in 2020.
In 2021, Nigerians sent and received 20,126,551,822. At N4 each, it means N80,506,207,288 was spent on using the service while last year, subscribers spent N103,714,818,262 on SMS as the total messages sent and received stood at 25,928,704,567.
When the three-year figures are added, it reaches N253,679,123,516.
The commission’s report said: “The total number of national SMS sent and received as at December 2020 was 17,364,524,490.02.This is a decline of (43.6 per cent) from that of the total SMS sent and received in 2019 that stood at 30,769,238,164.56 SMS.There was a 29.4 per cent increase in the number of SMS sent out in 2020 compared to the year 2019. Conversely, the year 2020 count of incoming SMS declined by 62.6 per cent higher than that of 2019.
“MTN recorded the highest count of SMS received (6,290,889,268) in 2020 the highest count of SMS sent (6,100,543,865) within the period under review.
“The total number of national SMS sent and received as at December 2021 was 19,818,602,804.33. This is an increase of 14.13per cent from that of the total SMS sent and received in 2020 that stood at 17,364,524,490.02 SMS.
There was a 15.1per cent increase in the number of SMS sent out in 2021 compared to 2020. Conversely, the 2021 count of incoming SMS also increased by 16.63 per cent higher than that of 2020.
“In 2021, MTN recorded the highest count of SMS received and sent, which stood at 8,234,925,441 and 7,882,538,193.
“The total number of national SMS sent and received as at December 2022 was 25,928,704,567. This is an increase of 28.82 per cent from that of the total SMS sent and received in 2021 that stood at 20,126,551,822 SMS.
“There was a 48.84 per cent increase in the number of SMS sent in year 2022 compared to 2021.
“Conversely, the 2022 count of Received SMS also increased by 11.06per cent higher than that of Year 2021. In Year 2022, MTN recorded the highest count of SMS received and sent which stood at 8,738,690,150 and 8,323,722,485.”
The report also showed that the total number of international SMS sent increased from 45,527,617 in 2021 to 59,571,547 as of 2022; marking a 30.84 per cent increase in international SMS received in 2022.
Similarly, the number of international SMS received in year 2021 increased from 340,981,507 SMS to 459,329,782 SMS as at December 2022.This translated to a 34.7per cent increase.
Airtel recorded the highest count of incoming and outgoing SMS at 389,774,725 and 35,383,723 during the period the NCC document reviewed.
