A recent report, the Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024 (West Africa), has identified Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana as the leading telecommunications markets in West Africa. The ranking, based on the latest available mobile subscription data, highlights the significant concentration of telecom activity within these three nations.
Key Findings:
- Market Share:
- Nigeria leads the region with 169,044,258 mobile subscriptions as of January 31, 2025, accounting for 42.06% of the total West African market (401,868,395 subscriptions).
- Côte d’Ivoire follows with 42,771,201 subscriptions, and Ghana ranks third with 38,294,564.
- Collectively, these three countries represent 62.24% of the region’s total mobile subscriptions (250,110,023).
- Other Significant Markets:
- Burkina Faso (27,455,428), Mali (25,607,193), Senegal (24,149,942), Benin Republic (18,246,662), Niger Republic (16,097,521), and Guinea (13,300,000) also hold sizable market shares.
- The remaining six West African nations (Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, and Cape Verde) each have fewer than 10 million mobile subscriptions.
- Operator Dominance:
- MTN Nigeria is the dominant mobile network operator (MNO) in the region, with 87,549,410 subscribers as of January 31, 2025.
- Airtel Nigeria follows with 57,665,796 subscribers.
- MTN Ghana has 28,618,000 subscribers as of September 30, 2024.
- Globacom and Orange Cote d’Ivoire occupy the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
- MTN Nigeria’s subscriber numbers exceed the combined subscriptions of all MNOs in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
- The report encompasses 46 MNOs, ranging from MTN Nigeria to Hayo Senegal, which has 28,980 subscribers as of December 31, 2024.
- Data Collection Methodology:
- Alford Conferences Limited, the report’s publisher, utilized data from telecommunications regulatory bodies where available.
- For countries lacking regulatory data, information was sourced directly from MNOs and online resources.
- The most recent data is from Nigeria(January 31, 2025), and the oldest data is from Gambia(December 31, 2020).
- Report Purpose:
- The Africa Telecom 50 Report is published annually by REVENUE Magazine, a publication of Alford Conferences Limited.
- It serves as the basis for selecting winners of the Africa Telecom 50 Awards, part of the World Digital Exhibition (WORLDEX) held in Abuja, Nigeria.
- The first edition, Africa Telecom 50 Report 2023, was published in April 2024. The second edition, Africa Telecom 50 Report 2024, is expected to be published in April 2025.
- The report is available on www.alfordevents.com/Reports