Nigeria’s telecommunications sector is seeing a shift as new data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows a decline in internet users following a major price hike earlier this year.
According to the NCC’s industry statistics, the total number of internet subscribers dropped by almost one million in February 2025. The user base fell from 142.16 million in January to 141.25 million the following month.
This came after a 50 percent rise in charges for voice calls, SMS, and internet data that was introduced in January.
There was a slight recovery in March, with internet users increasing to 142.05 million. However, the NCC noted that data usage remained lower than the January peak.
In February, monthly data consumption dropped by 12 percent, moving from one exabyte to 893.06 petabytes. A small bounce-back happened in March, with consumption rising by 11.5 percent to 995.88 petabytes, but usage still stayed below the earlier high levels.
The report notes that many users are now more cautious with their data usage, likely due to the higher costs. Even though the number of internet users began to climb again, the effects of the tariff increase are still being felt across the sector.
On the other hand, the telecom industry added 3.39 million new telephone users between January and March, taking the number of active lines from 169.32 million to 172.71 million. This also helped improve Nigeria’s teledensity rate from 78.10 percent to 79.67 percent in the same period.
When it comes to market leadership, MTN Nigeria continues to dominate both in internet subscriptions and active phone lines. The company had 75.62 million internet users and 90.5 million active phone lines, making up over half the market share.
Airtel Nigeria followed with 48.8 million internet subscribers and 58.3 million active lines. Globacom reported 15.37 million internet users and 20.7 million phone lines, while 9mobile trailed with 1.75 million and 2.9 million, respectively.
Meanwhile, mobile number porting data showed that 9mobile had the highest number of users leaving its network. A total of 5,809 subscribers ported out in February and March combined. In comparison, MTN lost 647 customers, Airtel saw 695 leave, and Globacom recorded 771 outgoing ports.
In terms of gaining new users, MTN was the biggest winner, with 4,855 people switching to its network. Airtel gained 2,084, and Globacom attracted 1,007 new users. 9mobile, however, only saw three new subscribers port into its network during the same two-month period.
