MTN Nigeria has crossed 100 million active subscribers for the first time, strengthening its position as the country’s largest telecom operator as Nigeria’s overall mobile market continued to recover in July.
The operator recorded 100.86 million active subscribers in July, up from 98.64 million in June, according to the latest industry data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The increase of 2.22 million subscribers pushed MTN’s market share to 51.76 per cent.
Nigeria’s total active mobile subscriptions also increased during the month, rising from 192.23 million in June to 195.11 million in July. The increase indicates continued recovery in the telecom market following the decline in active lines associated with the enforcement of the National Identification Number-SIM linkage requirements.
MTN’s closest competitor, Airtel Nigeria, had 66.76 million active subscribers in July, giving it a 34.26 per cent market share. Globacom followed with 23.63 million subscribers, while 9mobile, listed as T2 in the NCC data, had 3.61 million.
The latest figures also show that Nigeria’s growing mobile market is increasingly driven by demand for internet connectivity rather than voice services alone. Mobile GSM internet subscriptions reached 157.27 million in July, while broadband subscriptions stood at 124.42 million, according to the NCC data.
Data consumption also reached a new high, with Nigerians using about 1.66 million terabytes of internet data in July, compared with 1.53 million terabytes in June. The figures point to a market in which smartphones, mobile data and digital services are becoming increasingly important to consumers and businesses.
For businesses, the expansion of the mobile market creates a larger addressable audience for digital payments, e-commerce, online education, entertainment, advertising and other internet-based services. It also gives small businesses and entrepreneurs more opportunities to reach customers through mobile platforms without relying entirely on physical locations.
MTN’s position is particularly significant because the company now accounts for more than half of Nigeria’s active GSM subscriptions. Its scale gives it a substantial position in the country’s digital economy as competition shifts increasingly toward data, connectivity and digital services.
The July figures nevertheless show that Nigeria’s mobile market has not fully returned to the levels recorded before the large-scale disconnections linked to the NIN-SIM verification exercise. The latest expansion therefore represents continued recovery as well as growth in demand for connectivity.
With total subscriptions approaching 200 million again and data usage continuing to rise, the next phase of Nigeria’s telecom market is likely to depend increasingly on how operators expand network capacity and how businesses turn the country’s growing digital audience into new products, services and revenue opportunities.
