1.97 million new SIMs activated as Nigeria’s data usage dips slightly in September

Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that as of September 2025, about 1.97 million new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards were activated across the country.
This brought the total number of active voice subscriptions to 173.54 million, up from 171.57 million in August.

Teledensity  the number of active telephone lines per 100 inhabitants   also increased slightly from 79.14 per cent to 80.05 per cent, reflecting steady subscriber additions across major mobile network operators.

Internet subscriptions rose from 139.7 million in August to 140.4 million in September, while broadband penetration edged up by 10 basis points to 49.34 per cent, representing 106.97 million connections.

The figure remains 20.66 per cent short of the Federal Government’s 70 per cent broadband target for December 2025 as outlined in the National Broadband Plan.

In terms of network technology, 4G accounted for the largest share of mobile connections at 51.6 per cent, followed by 2G at 38.4 per cent, 3G at 6.6 per cent, and 5G at 3.4 per cent.

Among GSM operators, MTN Nigeria retained its lead with 90.33 million subscribers, representing 52.12 per cent market share. Airtel followed with 58.47 million users, or 33.74 per cent.

Globacom recorded 21.39 million active connections (12.34 per cent), while T2 (formerly 9mobile) held 3.11 million subscribers (1.8 per cent), improving from 2.73 million in August.

Despite the rise in new SIM activations, overall data consumption slightly declined from 1.15 million terabytes in August to 1.14 million terabytes in September.

Meanwhile, network intelligence firm Ookla has ranked MTN as the best-performing mobile operator in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using Speedtest Intelligence data and operator reports, Ookla analyzed the performance of Airtel Africa, Orange, MTN, and Vodacom across eight countries, which collectively account for 55 per cent of SSA’s mobile connections.

The report found that MTN Uganda topped East Africa in network performance, while MTN Nigeria led in West Africa for 5G download speeds. MTN’s operations in Uganda, Nigeria, and Botswana were the only ones to achieve a 5G median download speed above 200 Mbps.

Operators such as Orange (Botswana), Safaricom (Kenya), Airtel (Nigeria and Uganda), Vodacom, and MTN (South Africa) recorded median download speeds between 160 Mbps and 186 Mbps.

Airtel (Tanzania and Kenya) and Vodacom (Tanzania) had lower speeds, ranging from 60 Mbps to 130 Mbps.

Ookla noted that Sub-Saharan Africa remains an attractive telecom market due to its young and expanding population and growing demand for digital and financial services.

However, the sector faces challenges such as currency devaluation, inflation, high energy costs, sluggish economic growth, and regulatory pressures, including lower mobile termination rates in Uganda.

Tariff adjustments in some markets, including Nigeria, have helped operators like Airtel offset the negative impact of currency depreciation and maintain revenue growth.