Abolaji Adebayo 
Despite the economic hardship being witnesses in the country, the contribution of telecommunications sector to Nigeria’s Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) still increased in Q2’24 to16.26 per cent. This was revealed in the latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Though the telecoms operators were lamenting the high cost of production limiting their operationality, the data showed that the industry was still thriving, making more prosperity even more than many other sectors of the economy.
The GDP contribution by the sector increased by 2.26 per cent since the last quarter of 2023. In the last quarter of 2013, the sector’s contribution to the GDP was 14.00 per cent. Since the first quarter of 2023, the GDP in the second quarter of 2024 was the highest as it kept increasing quarter on quarter.
There was a decline in the GDP in the third quarter of 2023, falling from 16.06 per cent in the second quarter of 2023 to 13.50 per cent in the third quarter of the same year. In the first quarter of 2023, he GDP was 14.13 per cent, from 13.50 per cent in the third quarter, it increased to 14.00 per cent in the last quarter of the year 2023.
The GDP still increased in the first quarter of 1024 by 0.58 per c3nt to 14.58 per c3nt as recorded by the NCC, it rose to its highest point in the second quarter of 2024 to 16.36 per cent. According the NCC, the newly released data is accurate as it did a thorough auditing of the industry to arrive at the data.
However, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its GDP statistics released in August put the contribution of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Q2’24 at 19.78 per cent, which is about 0.24 per cent increase compared to the 19.54 per cent recorded in the same period last year. Quarter on quarter, the sector also recorded an increase in contribution when compared with the preceding quarter.
The NBS data showed that ICT contributed 17.89 per cent to the real GDP in Q1’24. According to NBS, the ICT sector comprises the four activities of Telecommunications and Information Services; Publishing; Motion Picture, Sound Recording, and Music Production; and Broadcasting.
