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ICT sector’s contribution to national economy dips

By Adeyemi Adepetun and Ibukun Igbasan
06 September 2017   |   3:04 am
The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector’s contribution to the nation’s economy in the period under review bore negative outlook.The report, yesterday, said the industry contracted by -1.15 per cent from the 2.73 per cent recorded in the first quarter of the year.

Information Communication Technology

The Information and Communications Technology(ICT) sector’s contribution to the nation’s economy in the period under review bore negative outlook.The report, yesterday, said the industry contracted by -1.15 per cent from the 2.73 per cent recorded in the first quarter of the year.

The bureau grouped the sector to comprise the four activities of telecommunications and information services; publishing; motion picture, sound recording as well as music production and broadcasting.

According to the document, in nominal terms, the sector grew by 2.66 per cent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of the year, a 9.31 per cent points increase over the –6.66 per cent recorded in the corresponding of last year. It noted that on a quarterly basis, the growth rate was 2.28 per cent.

NBS informed that the sector contributed 11.27 per cent to total nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the period, a 12.59 per cent lower than the figure achieved same quarter of 2016.

Accordingly, the sector slowed by –1.15 per cent in real terms, year on year in the second quarter of the year. From the rate recorded during the corresponding period of 2016, there was a decline of -2.51 per cent points.

The agency noted that the main driver of the slight growth was the telecommunications and information services arm, stressing that on a quarter on quarter basis, it exhibited a growth of 2.68 per cent in real terms. Of total real GDP, the sector contributed 12.39 per cent in the period under review though lower than the 12.61 per cent figure of the first quarter.

The Guardian had a fortnight ago revealed how telecommunications operators lost over 10 million active subscribers.We had hinged our report on statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which disclosed that the country entered into 2017 with 155.1 million subscribers, but as at June, the figure has dropped to 143.1 million.

Though, the statistics showed that in terms of connected lines within the period, the figure grew from 238 million in January to 241 million as at June, however, there was reduction in the number of active users of telephony services nationwide during same period.

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