February 6, 2024/CSL Research
Based on new industry data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria’s active mobile subscriptions increased marginally by 0.46% to 223.22 million in November 2023 compared to 222.18 million in October 2023. This indicates that the country’s mobile subscriptions increased by 1,031,814 subscribers in November. Since the previous consecutive declines that were observed earlier in 2023, this is the third consecutive increase in the number of mobile subscribers.
An increase in MTN subscribers (up by 236,192), the largest operator by subscriber number, improved the overall industry numbers, bringing its total active subscriptions to 85.98 million from 85.75 million in October 2023. Globacom remained the second-largest operator in terms of subscriber numbers in November 2023, gaining 35,743 new subscribers in the month to
reach 61.54 million overall subscriptions, up from 61.51 million in October.
9mobile added 155,145 new subscribers, bringing its total active linked lines to 13.98 million, up from 13.82 million in October. Airtel, the third-largest operator by subscriber base, grew its subscriber numbers by 627,751 in the month under review to 61.30 million from 60.67 million in October.
Given the increase in active connected lines recorded by telcos, the country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, increased to 102.97% from 102.49% recorded in October.
The slight increase in mobile subscriber numbers also led to an increase in broadband penetration to 41.87% from 41.01% in October. We reiterate our positive outlook for the telecoms sector on the back of rising industry numbers. That said, we believe the directive to telcos to outrightly disconnect subscribers whose SIMs have not been linked to their NINs in February will have a short term negative impact on telcos’ mobile subscriber base.
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