The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has declared that the number of telephone users in Nigeria increased to 222.6 million at the end of 2022.

The 2022 figure showed an increase of 27.1 million telephone users over the 195.5 million subscribers recorded at the end of 2021.

The NBS made the disclosure via its Telecoms Data: Active Voice and Internet per State, Porting and Tariff Information report for the last quarter of 2022, released on Monday, April 24.

The NBS stated that the figure for the last quarter of 2022 represented a 13.87 per cent rise in voice subscriptions on a year-on-year basis.

READ ALSO: Man set ablaze for stealing phone in Calabar

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the report showed growth stood at 4.89 per cent.

The NBS also recorded a total of 154.9 million active internet subscribers at the end of 2022 compared to 142 million recoded at the end of 2021.

“This represents a 9.07 per cent increase in active internet subscriptions year-on-year, while on a quarter-on-quarter basis, internet subscription grew by 1.35 per cent,” it stated.

On state-by-state analysis, the report showed that Lagos State had the highest number of active telephone users in 2022 at 26.5 million, followed by Ogun State with 13 million users.

Kano State came third with 12.4 million telephone users.

The report showed that Bayelsa State had the least number of telephone users at 1.6 million subscribers, followed by Ebonyi and Ekiti states with 1.9 million users and two million users, respectively.

It also showed that Lagos State had the highest number of internet users at 18.7 million subscribers, followed by Ogun State with 9.2 million subscribers and Kano State with 8.5 million subscribers.

“On the other hand, Bayelsa recorded the least number of 1.1 million internet users, followed by Ebonyi and Ekiti with 1.3 million and 1.5 million subscribers, respectively,” the NBS added.

The NBS noted that majority of telephone users in Nigeria in 2022 were MTN subscribers.

The Star