Nigeria added over 20 million new users mobile subscriptions in 2022

Nigeria’s mobile subscription hit a new milestone after adding 23.48 million new subscriptions in 2022, to reach a total of 218.61 million subscriptions in the country. 

These statistics are courtesy of the latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

These numbers reflect Nigeria’s prominence in the telecommunications sector, owing to the country’s massive population. Nigeria also boasts one of the highest internet penetrations in Africa at 51%. 

The country has the largest mobile population in Africa, and with a young population, all growing to be eligible mobile subscribers, this industry is only set to soar higher over the next few years. 

18 million new Nigerians are projected to become telecom subscribers by 2025, as per GSMA, the global body for telecom. These younger generations of subscribers are expected to be more tech-savvy than the country has seen so far.  

However, as mentioned earlier, the total number of mobile subscribers currently stands at 218.61 million, of which MTN, has the bulk of 86.44 million subscriptions.

Globacom is next with 59.95 million subscriptions, and Airtel is close behind at 59.38 million mobile subscriptions. 9mobile has the least mobile subscribers at 12.84 million.

According to GSMA, “In 2021, mobile technologies and services generated around eight% of GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa, a contribution that amounted to almost $140bn of economic value added. 

The mobile ecosystem also supported more than 3.2 million jobs (directly and indirectly) and made a substantial contribution to the funding of the public sector, with $16bn raised through taxes on the sector. 

By 2025, mobile’s contribution will grow by $65bn (to almost $155bn), as the countries in the region increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased take-up of mobile services.”