Active subscriptions for telecommunications services across the mobile networks of MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile rose to 211.8 million in September. This is according to the latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The data shows that the increase was driven by MTN, which recorded the highest gain of 1.6 million subscriptions in the month. In total, the 4 GSM operators recorded a combined 2.3 million increase in subscriptions in September as the country’s active mobile subscription database stood at 209.6 million in August.
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 jumped from 109.99% in August to 111.50% in September 2022. According to NCC, the teledensity is calculated based on a population estimate of 190 million.
How the telcos fared in September
The NCC’s statistics show that MTN, which is the largest operator by subscriber number, gained 1.6 million new subscriptions in September. This brought its total active customer database to 81.2 million from the 79.6 million it recorded in August.
- Glo retained its second position as it added 524,387 new subscriptions in the month. The new activations on the network brought Glo’s total subscriptions to 59.3 million from the 58.8 million it recorded in August.
- Airtel added 33,623 new subscriptions in the month under review to remain the third-largest operator in the country. The telco’s active customer database rose to 58.4 million at the end of September from 58.3 million in August.
- 9mobile also added 83,575 subscriptions in the period. The company’s database which had suffered losses in the past months rose to 12.8 million in September from the 12.7 million subscriptions it recorded in August.
So far this year, the mobile network operators have gained a total of 16.7 million new subscriptions, a departure from last year when they lost close to 20 million subscriptions as a result of the government’s ban on new SIM registration between December 2020 and April 2021. As of December 2021, active subscriptions across the four networks stood at 195.1 million.