Abuja, Dec. 16, 2024 -The number of active telephone subscribers in Nigeria stood at 157.6 million as of October 2024.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reported this in its latest statistics posted on its website.
This figure represents a drop of 60.79 million subscribers from the 218.4 million active subscribers recorded in January 2024.
The number of active telephone subscribers in the country peaked at 219.97 million in February 2024.
The NCC attributed the drop in the number of active telephone subscribers to the NIN-SIM linkage exercise concluded on Sept. 14, 2024.
During the exercise, some subscribers whose SIMs could not be linked to verifiable National Identification Number (NIN) were delisted.
The drop was also attributed to the rectification of major discrepancies in the numbers by mobile operators.
According to the NCC, MTN has the largest market share of active telephone subscribers in Nigeria with 80.38 million subscribers, constituting 51.09% of the market share.
Airtel followed with 54.446 million active subscribers, constituting 34.61% of the market share.
Glo has 19.1 million subscribers, constituting 12.15% of the market share, while 9mobile has 3.39 million subscribers, constituting 2.15% of the market share.
Nigeria’s teledensity stood at 72.7% in October 2024, from 103.66% in December 2024.
The drop of the teledensity was also attributed to the NIN-SIM linkage exercise.
Teledensity is the percentage of Nigerians with active telephone lines.
It is calculated based on the population figure of 216 million from the Nigerian Population Commission. (GBN)
