Nigeria’s 5G connections hit 4 million in December 2024, as 4G expands  

This, however, represents 2.46% of the country’s total active subscriptions for telephone services, which stood at 164.6 million at the end of the year.

Three mobile network operators, MTN, Airtel, and Mafab Communications have rolled out 5G in Nigeria.

However, while the operators continue to invest in expanding the service, several factors, including the high cost of 5G devices, have slowed down subscriptions for the service, which offers the best quality of experience compared with 2G, 3G, and 4G.

The rising cost of operation driven by high inflation and the Nigerian currency devaluation, has seen the operators slow down their investments in 5G expansion.

According to NCC, the year 2024 saw 4G become the dominant technology in the country as telecom operators expanded the service.

While the three telecom operators have deployed 5G infrastructure across major cities in the country, especially, Lagos, Abuja, and Port-Harcourt, the service providers are seeing slow adoption due to the device limitation.

“As you are aware, devices have to be compatible with 5G for them to be used. We have many subscribers in Nigeria who have 2G and 3G devices, and we will continue to cater to the needs of those subscribers,” he said in a recent interview with Naijaonpoint.

But the challenge is not peculiar to Nigeria according to a recent report from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which showed that 5G coverage in Africa was the lowest in the world at 6% as of December 2023.

MTN launched the first 5G network in Nigeria in September 2022, while Airtel launched the same in June 2023. Mafab Communications, which secured the 5G licence at the same time as MTN could not roll out the service until late 2023 when it began to sell its routers.