The Nigerian Communication Commission’s (NCC)’s latest industry statistics says the number of mobile subscribers has grown by 29 million in the past one year.
As a result, the nation’s total number of mobile subscribers has reached a new record high of 226.84 million.
This also indicates that active subscriptions for telecom services across MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile networks rose by 14.6 percent year-on-year to hit 226.7 million in February 2023 as against 197.8 million in February 2022.
The number of network subscribers increased by 0.42 percent in February compared to January 2023, with 955,539 new subscribers added by telecommunication companies during the month.
According to the NCC records, MTN continues to be the largest operator, with 92.71 million mobile subscriptions. Globacom is second largest, with 60.76 million, followed by Airtel and 9mobile, with 60.30 million and 13.07 million subscribers respectively.
With the growth recorded by the operators, the country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, also rose from 118.51 percent in January 2023 to 119.01 percent in February. According to the NCC, the teledensity is calculated based on total population estimate of 190 million.
According to the NCC’s figures, MTN, the largest operator by subscriber count, was a major factor in the rise seen in February, adding 756,847 new members during the month. This increased the number of active customers in the NCC’s database from 91.9 million in January to 92.7 million in February 2023.
Glo also saw a 420,562 gain in new subscribers over the month. In February 2023, the operator was able to surpass Airtel to become the second largest player by subscriber count. The network’s total subscriptions now stand at 60.7 million, up from the 60.3 million subscribers in January 2023.
However, due to a decline in its database of 263,627 in February, Airtel lost some subscribers during the month. The number of active subscribers for the telecom operator fell from 60.5 million in January of this year to 60.3 million at the end of February.
9mobile saw a rise in subscriptions during the month as its database expanded by 41,757. From 13.03 million in January, this increased the number of active subscriptions to 13.07 million.
Also, mobile internet subscriptions grew to 156.42 million, with broadband penetration rising to 48.49 percent and subscriptions hitting 92.56 million, marking a significant increase in the number of people using mobile devices to access the Internet.
Recall that telecommunication companies lost about 19.20 million subscribers due to the federal government’s NIN-SIM policy.
According to the Chief Operating Officer of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Ajibola Olude, the growth of mobile subscriptions could be attributed to individuals’ increasing reliance on the Internet.
“A lot of things are connected to the Internet, and they need SIMs. Asides that, at the federal and state level, there is a serious awareness of the need to adopt ICT,” Olude said.
He also said that many businesses and services had moved online due to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy.
“Many services have moved online, and don’t forget that the CBN is pursuing a cashless economy which means that there is a need to probably use an internet-enabled phone.”