Foreign Direct Investment into the telecoms industry has recorded an all-time low, dropping by 55.7 per cent.
According to the 2020 subscriber/network data report prepared by the policy competition and economic analysis department of the Nigerian Communications Commission obtained from the Commission, while it was $942, 863,833.96 in 2019, it fell to $417,481,615.30 last year,
This translates to a decline of 55.7 per cent in capital importation year-on-year. The decline in capital importation was largely attributed by the operators to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that distorted global businesses and impacted businesses negatively.
Similarly, domestic investment by way of capital expenditure stood at N408, 151,627,158.62 as of 2020, based on submissions from responsive licensees.
Further analysis showed that It was N501,541,147,252.77 the previous year, translating to a decline of 18.62 per cent due to probably challenges of the global pandemic during the year under review.
Giving a further breakdown of the figures, the report showed that for the global system for mobile communication of GSM, domestic capital investment stood at N339,772,000,000, while it was N404,819,000,000 in 2020.
Investment in fixed services stood at N599,000,000 during the period under review while other telecom operators invested N161,769,147,252.77 in 2019 and N2,733,627,158.62 last year.