Telecom sector remains a small contributor to Namibia’s GDP

The telecommunications sector remains an ‘insignificant contributor’ to Namibia’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The sector put about N$1,7 billion into the national account for 2007, which is 3,4 per cent of the estimated N$61 billion GDP, according to figures released by Investment House Namibia (IHN) in its December 2008 Namibia Telecommunication Report.
The review covers the period September 2006 to September 2007.
Namibia has a population of just under 2 million, the report says.
The counry’s two top telecom companies, Telecom Namibia and MTC, had a combined revenue of N$2,1 billion in 2007, which was 9 per cent up from the previous year.
Cellphone subscribers came in ‘at 870 000 at the end of 2007’, which implies that about 41 per cent Namibians use or possess cellphones.
There are about 138 000 fixed-line subscribers nationwide and IHN expects growth in this Telecom Namibia preserve to be driven by growth in the ADSL segment and ‘not by demand for voice services’. This figures pales in comparison with Egypt, which has over 11 million subscibers, and South Africa with 4,6 million.
Telecom Namibia employed 1 263 people for the period under review. MTC employed 296, while Cell One, Namibia’s second mobile operator, employed 150 people. ‘The industry employment is concentrated at the skilled and specialised technical level,’ the report says.
Internet showed an increase of 20 per cent in the number of subscribers, which are estimated at 90 000.
MTC ended the year with an 89,5 per cent market share, ‘down from 100 per cent in 2006’, the report says.
‘For 2009, we forecast Cell One to capture 50 per cent of the total market addition through its lower pricing strategies in the expected economic downturn of 2009,’ the author says.
The IHN analyst concludes that competition is expected to drive tariffs further down but in the medium term, it is anticipated that MTC will continue to be the mobile market leader. Cell One, on the other hand, ‘is likely to benefit from its investment to increase its mobile coverage in other areas within the country’.

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