MTN, Airtel drive telecom growth as subscriptions hit 169.3 million 

The growth was driven by the increase in mobile subscriptions to MTN and Airtel, which expanded their subscriber bases within the period under review.

This is according to an industry statistics published by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The latest figures show a continued recovery from the sector’s previous decline, as a result of NCC’s enforced NIN-SIM linkage policy in December 2023, barring SIMs without submitted or verified NINs in February 2024, leading to significant losses in the telecom sector, as unverified SIMs were barred from networks.

As a result, MTN disconnected 4.2 million lines, while Airtel reported 4.9 million pending NIN verifications causing active mobile subscriptions to drop sharply from 218.4 million in January 2024 to 169.3 million in January 2025 with September 2024 being its lowest at 154.9 million.

The rise in active subscriptions also boosted Nigeria’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area to 78.10%, from 76.08% in December 2024.

MTN grew its market share to 51.7%, adding 2.9 million new subscribers in January 2025 to reach 87.5 million users, up from 84.6 million in December 2024.

The operator’s current numbers contrast sharply with its previous dominance in 2015, when it held a 15.7% market share with 23.4 million subscribers.

The report also highlighted a surge in mobile number portability, with 8,708 subscribers switching networks in January 2025, compared to 2,998 in December 2024.

The breakdown of outgoing porting shows that:

On the other hand, MTN gained 5,551 new customers from other operators, Airtel added 2,414 porting subscribers, and Globacom recorded 736 incoming customers. Meanwhile, 9mobile had only seven new porting subscribers in January 2025, underscoring its market struggles.

Nigeria’s internet usage surged past the 1-million-terabyte mark in January 2025, reaching 1,000,930.60 TB, compared to 973,455.35 TB in December 2024.

The upward trend in 5G adoption aligns with the ongoing expansion of telecom infrastructure. However, despite the increase, 5G still accounts for a small fraction of overall mobile connectivity, indicating that wider adoption will depend on further network expansion and affordability of 5G-compatible devices.