Nigeria’s telecom records growth as mobile subscriptions rise to 169.3m

• Published On: 05 March 2025 at 07:08

Nigeria's telecommunications industry rebounded significantly in January 2025, with active mobile subscriptions reaching 169.3 million, up from 164.9 million in December 2024.

According to industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission, increased subscriptions to major operators MTN and Airtel drove this growth.

The recent increase represents a continued recovery from the sector's sharp decline after the NCC implemented the National Identification Number (NIN)-SIM linkage policy. This policy, which required subscribers to verify their SIMs with their NINs, resulted in the removal of unverified SIMs in February 2024. As a result, active mobile subscriptions fell from 218.4 million in January 2024 to 154.9 million in September 2024 before gradually recovering.

MTN was notably affected, disconnecting 4.2 million lines, while Airtel had 4.9 million pending NIN verifications. However, as the industry adjusted to the regulations, the most recent figures show a significant increase in subscriber numbers.

The increase in mobile subscriptions also boosted Nigeria's teledensity—the number of active telephone connections per 100 people—to 78.10% in January 2025, up from 76.08% in December 2024.

A breakdown of market performance reveals that MTN increased its subscriber base to 87.5 million in January, adding 2.9 million new users and increasing its market share to 51.7%. Airtel added one million new subscribers, increasing its total to 57.6 million and market share to 34.1%. Globacom's subscriber base increased slightly from 20.1 million in December to 20.5 million in January, following previous losses due to regulatory audits. For the third month in a row, 9mobile's subscriber base remained stagnant at 3.2 million. The operator, which had a 15.7% market share with 23.4 million subscribers in 2015, is now seeing a significant drop in its customer base.

The NCC report also revealed a significant increase in mobile number portability, with 8,708 subscribers switching networks in January versus 2,998 in December.

Outgoing porting data revealed that 9Mobile lost the most subscribers, with 6,716 users switching to other networks. MTN reported 1,188 outgoing porting cases, whereas Airtel and Globacom lost 399 and 405 subscribers, respectively.

In contrast, MTN gained 5,551 ported subscribers, Airtel added 2,414, and Globacom received 736 incoming users. Meanwhile, 9mobile only added seven new porting subscribers, highlighting its ongoing market challenges.

Internet usage in Nigeria has continued to rise, surpassing the one-million-terabyte mark for the first time. Data consumption increased to 1,000,930.60 TB in January 2025, from 973,455.35 TB in December 2024.

The increase is due to increased digital activities such as video streaming, remote work, e-commerce, and social media use.

Nigeria's 5G penetration increased to 2.54% in January 2025, from 2.46% in December 2024. Although growth remains consistent, the expansion of 5G services is primarily concentrated in cities where network infrastructure is being actively deployed. Broader adoption, however, will depend on increased coverage and affordability of 5G-compatible devices.