Nigeria’s telecommunications sector has witnessed a significant surge in active subscriptions, reaching 169.3 million in January 2025, up from 164.9 million in December 2024.
The Nigerian Communications Commission revealed this in its latest industry statistics, attributing the growth to the increasing subscriber base of MTN and Airtel.
According to the NCC, MTN solidified its position by increasing its market share to 51.7% with 87.5 million subscribers, up from 84.6 million in December 2024.
Airtel also demonstrated resilience, expanding its subscriber base to 57.6 million with a market share of 34.1%, up from 56.6 million in the preceding month.
The growth momentum has also boosted the country’s teledensity, which measures the penetration of active telephone connections, to 78.10%, marking a significant increase from the 76.08% recorded in December 2024.
However, 9mobile’s market share continued to decline, with a stagnant subscriber base of 3.2 million for three consecutive months.
The company also lost 6,716 customers to porting in January, according to the NCC’s report on incoming and outgoing porting activities of mobile network operators.
In contrast, MTN gained 5,551 subscribers through porting, while Airtel recorded 2,414 incoming porting.
Globacom also showed signs of recovery, growing its subscriber base from 20.1 million in December 2024 to 20.5 million in January 2025.
The NCC’s statistics indicate a significant increase in porting activities in January 2025, with a total of 8,708 subscribers moving from one network to another, compared to 2,998 in December 2024.
The industry statistics also revealed that the sector had gradually regained momentum after a period of decline, which saw subscriptions plummet to 154,904,827 in September 2024.
The decline in subscriptions was largely due to the mass deactivation of over 42 million SIM cards in February 2024 and the sector’s rebasing in September 2024.
The NCC noted that the growth in subscriptions was a testament to the resilience of the sector and the efforts of the commission to promote competition and innovation.
The commission also expressed its commitment to continuing to monitor the sector and implement policies that would promote growth and development.
