Mobile technologies and services generated five percent of global GDP in 2022, a contribution that amounted to $5.2 trillion of economic value added, according to a report by the Global System for Mobile telecommunications Association (GSMA).

The report revealed that the greatest benefits came from productivity effects which reached $3.5 trillion, followed by mobile operators, which generated $650 billion. The mobile sector also contributed $530 billion to the public sector through taxes.

Mobile operators and the wider mobile ecosystem provided direct employment to around 16 million people worldwide, while the economic activity in the ecosystem generated 12 million jobs in other sectors, meaning that around 28 million jobs were directly or indirectly supported.

By 2025, GSMA believes mobile’s contribution will reach $5.6 trillion and by 2030 will exceed $6 trillion as countries around the world increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased take-up of mobile services.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the ICT sector contributed 16.22 percent to Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Q4, 2022, leaping 0.87 percent when compared to 15.35 percent recorded in Q3, 2022, and 1.01 percent when compared to the same period in 2021.

The bureau reported that the ICT sector’s real growth rate of 10.35 percent was boosted by activities in the telecommunications sub-sector, which added 13.35 percent to the GDP in real terms. Largely, the ICT sector contributed 10.42 percent to the Nominal GDP in Q4, 2022, which was higher than the rate of 9.98 percent recorded in the same quarter of 2021 and higher than the 9.58 percent it contributed in the preceding quarter.

The report also noted that the mobile industry had a positive impact on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the mobile industry increasing its impact on all SDGs in 2021. The average SDG impact score across the 17 SDGs reached 53 (meaning the mobile industry is achieving 53 percent of what it could potentially contribute to the SDGs), up from 49 in 2020 and 32 in 2015.

The mobile industry is achieving the highest impact on SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, driven by the reach of mobile networks and take-up of mobile Internet services. There have been notable improvements in the industry’s contribution to SDG

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