Did Nigerian operators lose US$ 1 Billion in revenues to OTTs in 2019?

In Nigeria, several publications have made the claim that operators have seen a decline in revenue due to OTTs (see here and here and here). The most common claim is that mobile operators lost over US$ 1 billion in revenue because of WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, Skype and other OTTs. Following the evidence, the data shows that the opposite is true: the GDP contribution of the telecom sector has increased, subscriber numbers have grown and revenues of the largest two operators have grown. Airtel’s voice traffic increased by 20% in Q4 2019 and voice revenues have increased by 24% between June 2018 and December 2019. None of the claims of revenue loss caused by OTTs are backed by evidence. None of the journalists have corroborated their stories or provided accessible links to their data sources. The full slide deck with all the evidence can be downloaded here.