Telecom
Nigeria Records 2.3M Units of Smartphone Shipments in Q1 2019 – IDC
Africa’s smartphone market saw a 7.1% decline in shipments quarter on quarter (QoQ) in Q1 2019 to total 21.5 million units, according to the latest insights from International Data Corporation (IDC).
The global technology research and consulting firm’s recently published Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows the continent’s two biggest markets – Nigeria and South Africa – underperformed due to seasonal effects, posting QoQ declines of 14.7% and 23.4%, respectively.
“While Africa’s smartphone market experienced a QoQ decline, shipments actually increased 5.6% when viewed year on year (YoY),” says Arnold Ponela, a research analyst at IDC. “The YoY increase indicates that the market is showing some signs of improvement, while the QoQ decline can be attributed to the traditionally weaker performance of Q1 versus the seasonal buoyancy of Q4, in addition to disappointing results in some large markets.”
Nigeria saw smartphone shipments of 2.3 million units in Q1 2019, down 11.9% YoY.
The country’s poor performance can be attributed to a three-week embargo on shipments of Chinese mobile phone brands into the country, which negatively affected major market players.
Economic activity is usually slow in the first quarter and in Q1 2019 it was further exacerbated by widespread insecurity and the one-week postponement of the general election.
South Africa’s overall mobile phone market contracted 4.0% YoY in Q1 2019 to total 4.7 million units. “The decline can be attributed to seasonal factors, with Q1 traditionally being the slowest quarter of the year,” says Ponela.
“There was also an issue with overstocking in the channel because of the buoyant volumes seen during Q4, traditionally the strongest, when demand is stirred by Black Friday and the Christmas season.”
Africa’s smartphone market continues to be spurred by the growing popularity of low-end to mid-range devices.
Transsion brands (Tecno and Itel) top these segments and remain the continent’s leaders in terms of overall smartphone shipments, together accounting 33.1% of the market’s volume in Q1 2019. Samsung followed in second place with 24.5% unit share.
Huawei ranked third with a unit share of 11.8%. “With most of the continent’s markets experiencing numerous economic challenges, it is clear that cheaper phones offering better value will increasingly dominate the market,” says Ponela.
In the feature phone space, shipments were down 5.8% QoQ and 0.3% YoY in Q1 2019, with shipments totaling 31.6 million units.
Feature phones still constitute a significant 59.9% share of the total mobile phone market due to their relative affordability and durability, and they continue to play an important role in connecting even more Africans to the internet.
Transsion brands Tecno and Itel continue to dominate the feature phone landscape with a combined unit share of 59.7%, followed in third place by HMD with 9.2% share.
Looking ahead, IDC expects Africa’s overall mobile phone market to total 50.9 million units in Q2 2019, reflecting a YoY decline of 5.3% caused by sharp downturns in most countries.
“Africa is susceptible to challenging local macroeconomic environments as well as to the global tensions surrounding international trade,” says Ramazan Yavuz, a research manager at IDC. “Another factor is the rise of protectionist measures aimed at controlling smartphone shipments in multiple countries, which causes sudden short-term swings in the market’s performance.”
IDC’s research shows that 4G LTE networks are continuing to spread their reach in Africa, with shipments of 4G LTE devices increasing 15.1% YoY in Q1 2019 to constitute 67.1% of the smartphone market.
“A drop in prices for entry-level 4G phones and discounted tariff and data plans on the operator side are driving this growth,” says Yavuz. “However, despite the rapid penetration of 4G handsets, 2G and 3G mobile devices remain resilient as an economical option for price sensitive consumers.”
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
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