MTN Emerges Dominant Operator With 50% Market Share

MTN Nigeria has emerged a dominant operator in Nigeria’s telecommunications market making it the operator with largest market share.

MTN at the end of 2011 garnered 50 per cent share of the market with 41.6 million subscribers with its nearest competitors Globacom and Airtel trailing with 20 million and 19 million subscribers respectively.

According to documents from an Anti-Trust and Anti-Competition workshop organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2005, a dominant operator is one who controls from 48-50 per market share and may likely pose a threat and hinder smaller operators who don’t  have large subscriber base, capital and reach in the same market.

Mr. Wale Goodluck, Corporate Services Executive, MTN, said the company's dominance of the mobile market would not pose any threat to the market as it was open to working with the regulator and other operators in making the industry a better place. He said MTN’s submarine cable from the West African Cable System (WACS) is an open access cable and would be available to all players on pay-per-use basis.