The number of connected telephone lines in Nigeria has reached 322 million with teledensity at 118.5 per cent following the activation of 3.6 million new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards in January. This has equally resulted in active telephone lines in the country moving from 222.5 million in December 2022 to 226 million a month after.
eledensity is telephone connections per 100 people in a specified geographic area. Teledensity is often used to compare the level of access to voice and data communications services between metropolitan and rural areas, or between one country and another.
Globacom is third with 60.3 million customers and 26.71 per cent national reach, while 9mobile maintained its 13 million customers and 5.77 per cent penetration.
Internet coverage showed that on the GSM platforms, 155.6 million are surfing the web, while via the Fixed Wired platform 16, 144; ISP (Wired/Wireless) 204,810 and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 348,236, which brings the total to 156.22 million.
Broadband coverage showed that Nigeria now has 48.2 per cent penetration with some 92 million Nigerians having access to the service.
MEANWHILE, the number of National Identity Numbers (NINs) issued to Nigerians by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) increased by 1.5 million in February as the figure rose from 95 million in January to 96.5 million one month after.
In the new data, 54.6 million (56.5 per cent) males and 41.9 million females, which is 43.5 per cent.
The highest cumulative enrolment figure of over 10.63 million was recorded in Lagos State. Kano is next with 8.4 million; Kaduna 5.7 million; Ogun 4.1 million; Oyo 3.8 million and Abuja 3.3 million.
Others are Katsina 3.3 million; Rivers 2.9 million; Bauchi 2.6 million and Delta 2.58 million. The bottom 10 states are Kogi 1.67 million; Akwa Ibom 1.65 million; Imo 1.62 million; Enugu 1.55 million; Yobe 1.46 million. Others are Taraba 1.42 million; Cross-River 1.10 million; Ekiti 990,463; Ebonyi 774,263 and Bayelsa 611,229.
According to NIMC, diaspora issuance is now 366, 164 with 156, 651 females and 209, 513 males.
