Nigerians spent N848bn on calls in one year — NCC

Subscribers to telecommunications networks in Nigeria spoke for 41.23 billion minutes on the telephone in one year, statistics on traffic obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission have revealed.

The figure, which was for 2009, obtained in Abuja on Friday, also showed the total amount spent on the outgoing calls for that year was N848.89bn, going by an average call rate of N30 per minute.

If this is shared to the entire population estimated at 140 million, this means that every Nigerian spoke for 294.5 minutes or 4.91 hours.

However, if the total number of telephones of about 72 million is considered with the total traffic, then each subscriber spoke for 559.47 minutes. This translates into 9.32 hours per person with a phone.

The total network traffic is made up of 28.29 billion minutes for outgoing calls and 12.93 billion minutes for incoming calls.

The statistics also showed that Nigerians spoke for the longest of time in any single year in 2008. The outgoing calls for the year accounted for 23.49 billion minutes while the incoming calls were for 25.38 billion minutes.

Put together, Nigerians spoke for 48.88 billion minutes on telephone in 2008. This translates into 814.62 million hour talk.

On a population of 140 million people, the average talk time of Nigerians in the year amounted to 349.12 minutes or 5.82 hours for every Nigerian.

With a subscriber base of 64,296,117 by December 2008, the average talk time of Nigerian subscribers amounted to 760.19 minutes or 12.67 hours per subscriber.

For 2006, the total call traffic amounted to 25.18 billion minutes. While outgoing calls accounted for 12.15 billion minutes, incoming calls were for 13.03 billion minutes.

Incoming calls came to 17.84 billion minutes in 2007 while outgoing calls accounted for 19.56 billion minutes. This means a total talk time of 37.39 billion minutes or 623.28 million hours.

Several factors are responsible for increasing talk time on the Nigerian networks, according to the report.

The listed factors are the increasing size in the subscriber base as a result of reducing tariffs; the cost of connection as mobile handset keep decreasing, thus making the poorer segment of the society to get unto the networks.

Nigerians are also known for courtesies and greetings during telephone conversations despite the fact that they complain about cost. Experts attribute this to cultural values and orientation.