Nigeria becomes the No.1 mobile market in Middle East and Africa
The Nigerian mobile market has reportedly become the largest mobile market of Middle East and Africa in Q1’08, overtaking the South African market. The subscriber base has crossed the 50 million mark lately, and ended August with 55million mobile subscribers, says Engr Ernest Ndukwe, Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), becoming the 18th largest market of the world.
South Africa which is nearing the mobile penetration of 100% will be falling down to the third position in near future.
Iran has taken an upward leap from 6th to 3rd position by adding subscribers at a pace four times faster than South Africa. Following Iran comes Egypt with 30.8 million active mobile subscribers from 29.4m in March. This rise was driven by the arrival of new entrant.
Algeria and Saudi Arabia have fallen to fifth and sixth as Iran took a leap. Algeria at the end of August had crossed the 30.8 million subscribers, while Saudi Arabia had a total of 29.8million, the sudden rise comes only when nearly a million people come to visit Haj, leave the SIMs inactive once they leave.
Morocco, Kenya and Iraq, shared the same place during March. In August, Morocco stood at 21.4 million, Kenya at 14.3 million and Iraq at 12.75 million. Tanzania retained the tenth position with 10.1 million subscribers.
