Africa Mobile Market Resource Centre

Index

Top 25 African Mobile Operators by Total Subscribers
Top 25 African Mobile Operators by Net Additions
April 2008: Nigeria gently nudges ahead of South Africa

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Africa and the Middle East has seen very strong growth in the 12 months to 31 March 2008. The Top 10 has seen some changes, with the changes involving Zain in Iraq propelling the operator into 6th. place. The top two positions are occupied by Iraq's MCI with 8.21 million net additions just beating MTN's Irancell with 7.95 million. Iraq and Egypt account for six out of the 10 leading operators, with the three leading operators in each market making it into the Top 10 - a remarkable performance. Even more so given the recent entry of Etisalat into the Egyptian market

Click here for a full analysis of the Africa and Middle East Mobile Telecoms Market 4Q 2008 with subscriber numbers and mobile penetration for all operators and States.

Nigeria bags 20 percent of the entries - not surprisingly given the country's status as one the faster growing markets in Africa, having now - just - topped South Africa in terms of the total number of net subscribers. Kenya is also showing steady growth with Safaricom in 8th place.

Zain Iraq secured its place in the table by the merger of Orascom's network with Zain's Atheer. Saudi Telecom holds the flag for Saudi Arabia. Mobily would have made it into the Top 10 had the regulator not expressed concerns about the methodolgy being applied by the Etisalat-managed operator to the recording of 'active subscribers'. Indeed both the Egyptian and Saudi regulators have called for greater transparancy with the reporting of subscriber numbers, and it may well be that the Etisalat Misr figures will also see some adjustment. Certainly Mobily's rapid increase in numbers were exceptional.

The Egyptian market was given extra impetus by the arrival of a new entrant in the form of Etisalat, which launched in the second quarter of 2007. MobiNil is in third place having added some 5.49 million snet subscribers, whilst Vodafone netted some 4.42 million in a year, and putting it in 5th place.

Nigeria is now Africa's largest mobile market and Zain's Celtel saw some 5.36 million net additions to put it in 4th place, whilst MTN added some 4.38 million subscribers and placing it 7th. This growth is despite concerns expressed by the regulator regarding 'quality of service' on the GSM networks, the regulator having requested a period of consolidation.

Kenya's Safaricom claimed 4.03 million net additions, although the documentation issued for its recent IPO led to some concerns that numbers might be overstated.