Nigerians shun 5G for affordable, stable 4G network

Femi Fabunmi

Fourth Generation (4G) technology remains the most used mobile network in Nigeria, connecting more than half of the country’s mobile users.

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) report for May 2025, 4G makes up about 50.29% of all mobile connections in Nigeria.

This shows that many people have adopted it, and telecom companies keep expanding their 4G services.

Compared to 4G, the use of 3G and 2G has continued to drop, even though many people still use them.

The main reason for 4G’s popularity is that people want faster and more reliable internet to watch videos and use their smartphones effectively.

Telecom companies have spent a lot of money to expand 4G coverage, making it available to more people despite challenges like the falling value of the naira and high operating costs.

However, there are still problems. Even though 4G coverage is wide, a recent report by Opensignal shows that Nigeria ranks low in 4G/5G availability (100th) and even lower in 4G download speeds (120th).

This means that while many people can access 4G, the internet speed is still slow, especially in rural areas.

On the other hand, 5G is growing slowly in Nigeria. By May 2025, only 2.93% of mobile users had switched to 5G, up slightly from 2.81% in April.

This is almost three years after 5G was launched. MTN, Mafab Communications, and Airtel paid over $820 million for their licences.

Experts say 4G will still be the main network in Africa until at least 2030, with about half of users still relying on it.

There are several reasons why 5G is not growing fast in Nigeria. It needs a lot of investment in infrastructure like new towers and fibre cables.

Also, many people cannot afford 5G phones or the expensive data plans. Other issues include delays in spectrum allocation and the high cost of maintaining 5G networks.

Despite these problems, 4G has greatly helped Nigeria’s digital economy. It has boosted online businesses, ride-hailing and delivery services, and mobile banking. Overall, the telecom sector remains important to Nigeria’s economy by providing the foundation for digital services in many industries.