July 25, 2023/CSL Research

Based on new industry data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria’s mobile subscriptions declined marginally by 1% to 220.9 million in May 2023 from 223.3 million in April. This decline comes after mobile subscriptions reached an all-time high of 227.17 million in February 2023. Since then, we have seen three consecutive declines, a concerning trend for the nation’s mobile operators. Mobile subscriptions first fell to 225.82 million in March, before declining further to 223.34 million in April.

The decline in total mobile subscriptions in May was caused by a loss of 3.0 million subscriptions by MTN, despite retaining its spot as the largest mobile network operator in the country. MTN’s total subscriber base dropped to 85.6 million from 88.6 million it recorded in April 2023. Glo maintained its position as the second-largest operator by subscriber base in May 2023, with total subscriptions climbing to 61.1 million from 60.9 million in April.

9mobile recorded the highest gain in May as its database grew by 257,320, bringing its total active subscriptions to 13.7 million from the 13.4 million in April. Airtel Nigeria’s overall subscriptions grew to 60.5 million in May from 60.3 million in April. The country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area declined to 115.91% in May from 117.17% recorded in April.

We attribute the reduction in MTN’s active subscriptions in May, which brought down total industry figure, to the abandonment of SIMs that have not been linked with the National Identification Number (NIN) as mandated by the government. Given the recent directive of the NCC as contained in its new quality of service business rules, instructing telcos to deactivate any line that has not been used for any revenue-generating activity for 6 months, we expect to continue to see a marginal decline in mobile subscribers in the coming months.

Click here to read full PDF copy of report