Nigeria’s mobile subscriber base has shown signs of recovery, increasing to 157.3 million in October 2024 from 154.6 million in September.
This uptick follows months of decline caused by the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) extensive audit and the implementation of the NIN-Sim linkage exercise. The exercise led to a significant drop of 64.3 million lines between March and September.
MTN and Airtel were the primary drivers of this growth, both experiencing an increase in their subscriber base during October.
As a result of this growth in active connections, the country’s teledensity – the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants – rose to 72.7% from 71.46% in September. This calculation is based on a population estimate of 216 million.
This positive trend indicates a potential resurgence in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, as the industry recovers from the impact of regulatory changes and the NIN-SIM linkage exercise.