Nigeria’s telecommunications sector experienced significant growth in January 2025, with active mobile subscriptions increasing to 169.3 million, up from 164.9 million in December 2024.
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.
Internet data consumption surpasses 1 million terabytes
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 increase highlights a growing reliance on digital services, with factors such as video streaming, remote work, e-commerce, and social media contributing to the rise.
5G penetration in Nigeria climbed to 2.54% in January 2025, up from 2.46% in December 2024.
Although the growth remains gradual, the steady increase reflects an expanding demand for faster internet speeds, particularly in urban areas where 5G networks are being deployed.
Credit: Naira Metrics
