Nigeria’s telecommunications industry saw a significant rebound in January 2025, as active mobile subscriptions climbed to 169.3 million, up from 164.9 million in December 2024.
This growth was fueled by increased subscriptions to major operators MTN and Airtel, according to industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The recent increase marks a continued recovery from the sector’s sharp decline following the NCC’s enforcement of the National Identification Number (NIN)-SIM linkage policy. This policy, which required subscribers to verify their SIMs with their NINs, led to the barring of unverified SIMs in February 2024. As a result, active mobile subscriptions dropped from 218.4 million in January 2024 to a low of 154.9 million in September 2024 before beginning to rebound.
MTN was notably affected, disconnecting 4.2 million lines, while Airtel faced 4.9 million pending NIN verifications. However, as the industry adjusted to the regulations, the latest figures indicate a strong resurgence in subscriber numbers.
The rise in mobile subscriptions also drove Nigeria’s teledensity—the measure of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants—up to 78.10% in January 2025, compared to 76.08% in December 2024.
A breakdown of market performance shows that: MTN expanded its subscriber base to 87.5 million, adding 2.9 million new users in January, growing its market share to 51.7%. Airtel gained one million new subscribers, bringing its total to 57.6 million and its market share to 34.1%. Globacom, which had previously suffered losses due to regulatory audits, rebounded slightly from 20.1 million subscribers in December to 20.5 million in January. 9mobile continued to struggle, maintaining a stagnant subscriber base of 3.2 million for the third consecutive month. The operator, which once held a 15.7% market share with 23.4 million subscribers in 2015, now faces a significant decline in its customer base.
The NCC report also revealed a sharp increase in mobile number portability, with 8,708 subscribers switching networks in January, compared to 2,998 in December.
Outgoing porting data showed that: 9mobile lost the most subscribers, with 6,716 users switching to other networks. MTN recorded 1,188 outgoing porting cases, while Airtel and Globacom lost 399 and 405 subscribers, respectively.
Conversely, MTN gained 5,551 ported subscribers, Airtel added 2,414, and Globacom recorded 736 incoming users. Meanwhile, 9mobile managed to attract only seven new porting subscribers, highlighting its ongoing market challenges.
Internet usage in Nigeria continued to rise, surpassing the one-million-terabyte threshold for the first time. Data consumption reached 1,000,930.60 TB in January 2025, up from 973,455.35 TB in December 2024.
The surge is attributed to increasing digital activities, including video streaming, remote work, e-commerce, and social media usage.
Nigeria’s 5G penetration inched upward to 2.54% in January 2025, from 2.46% in December 2024. Although growth remains steady, the expansion of 5G services is largely concentrated in urban areas where network infrastructure is being actively deployed. Wider adoption, however, will depend on increased coverage and affordability of 5G-compatible devices.
