Mobile phone revenue up K7.8 billion, voice calls projected to hit 32.1 billion minutes in 2023

Zambia’s mobile phone revenue in the sub-sector has increased to K7.8 billion in 2022 from K6.6 billion the previous year.

Airtime remained the largest contributor to the Mobile Network Operators (MNO’s) revenue accounting for 45.2 percent of the total revenue’s sub-sector.

This is according to Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) Corporate Communications Manager Hanford Chaaba.

Chaaba said in statement in Lusaka on Friday that the contribution of data services to total revenues increased from 30.5 percent at the end of 2021 to 36.9 percent in 2022.

This makes it the fastest growing revenue source.

He indicated that the Authority forecast a positive outlook in general uptake and use of Information Communications Technology(ICT) services in the subsequent review period.

Chaaba said the number of active mobile network subscriptions is expected to increase from 19.8 million reported at the end of 2022 to 20.4 million subscriptions at the end of 2023 and subsequently 21.3 million in 2024.

In addition, Chaaba said the volume of domestic outgoing mobile voice call minutes was forecasted to increase from 28.5 billion minutes estimated at the end of 2022 to 32.1 billion projected for the year 2023 and could reach 34.5 billion minutes in 2024.

He said the anticipated improvements in uptake and usage of ICT services are on the backdrop of increased investments by operators in the capacity and coverage of their networks, competitive pricing outcomes on the market as well as general improvement in demand for ICT services among other attributes.

Chaaba said by the end of December 2022, there were a total of 84 valid licenses in the ICT sector compared to 73 valid licenses that had been issued by the Authority at the end of December 2021.

“In the postal sector, there were a total of 71 valid licenses at the end of December, 2022 compared to 49 valid licenses that had been issued at the end of December, 2021 reflecting a growth rate of 45 percent,”he said.

Contributed by Julius Phirl

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