The value-added service (VAS) market segment of Nigeria’s $76 billion telecom market saw a 25.02 per cent subscription rise in 2024, with active subscriptions to the various VAS rising to 13,559,266 from 10,845,134 in 2023.
 
VAS consists of licensees providing auxiliary telecom services such as Aggregators, Content Services using short code numbers, mobile, electricity service, unstructured supplementary service (USSD), SMS Service, mobile banking, enterprise bulk messaging, transactional service, electronic airtime distribution, call ring back tone/entertainment and special numbering. 
 
The licensees provide telecommunications services across the 36 states of Nigeria.

NCC, in its 2024 Subscribers/Network Performance Report, further said the operators in this market segment recorded total revenue of N83.1 billion against N14.6 billion recorded in 2023. This reflected an increase of 470.74 per cent in total revenue.
  
Similarly, the total operating cost for these operators increased from N53.6 billion in 2023 to N79.9 billion at the end of 2024.

This illustrated an increase of 49.1 per cent within the period reviewed. In terms of CAPEX- local investments in the segment, NCC said the total revenue as of December 2024 for the VAS Licensees was N2, 757,164,586.
 
As of December 2024, the total staff strength of the VAS market segment stood at 713. Nigerian staff were 703, comprising 440 males and 263 females, while the expatriate staff base reported eight males and two females within the reporting period.