Nigeria’s mobile subscription base showed signs of recovery in October 2024, increasing to 157.3 million from 154.6 million in September. This growth followed months of decline caused by regulatory audits and the National Identification Number (NIN)-SIM linkage exercise. the exercise earlier slashed the country’s database by 64.3 million lines.
The resurgence was fueled by MTN and Airtel, the two largest operators, whose combined subscriber growth boosted the industry. MTN recorded a significant increase of 2.2 million subscriptions, raising its active base to 80.3 million. This growth secured MTN a commanding 51.09% share of the mobile market. Airtel, with 697,430 new subscribers in October, reached 54.4 million active users and now holds 31.61% of the market share.
However, Globacom and 9mobile continued to struggle. Globacom saw a decline of 44,635 subscriptions, leaving it with 19.1 million active lines and 12.15% of the market share. 9mobile’s losses were steeper, with 245,263 fewer subscribers in October, dropping its base to 3.3 million and reducing its share to 2.15%.
The growth in active lines pushed Nigeria’s teledensity—the number of active phone lines per 100 residents—to 72.7%, up from 71.46% in September. This metric was calculated based on a population estimate of 216 million. This reflects the country’s renewed momentum in mobile connectivity.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) attributed the earlier decline to a rigorous audit of telecom databases and the NIN-SIM linkage mandate. During the audit, the NCC found that one operator had misclassified about 40 million inactive lines as active, inflating industry figures.
