MTN Nigeria has crossed the 100 million subscriber mark for the first time, adding 2.22 million customers in July to reach a record 100.86 million.
Data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission on Wednesday showed that the telecom giant’s subscriber base rose from 98.64 million in June to 100.86 million in July.
The latest figure makes MTN Nigeria the first telecommunications operator in Africa to surpass 100 million subscribers.
The growth came as Nigeria’s telecommunications industry continued to recover from the decline in active mobile lines triggered by the enforcement of the National Identification Number and Subscriber Identification Module linkage policy.
The NCC data also showed that Nigeria’s total active mobile subscriptions increased by about 2.88 million in one month, rising from 192.23 million in June to 195.11 million in July.
Despite the increase, the latest figure remains below the more than 200 million active subscriptions recorded before the full impact of the NIN-SIM verification exercise.
Nigeria’s active subscriptions stood at about 207.6 million in October 2020 and later rose to a reported 214.35 million in October 2022.
The NIN-SIM linkage policy was introduced in late 2020, with subsequent enforcement leading to the disconnection of millions of lines that had not met the identity verification requirements.
MTN accounted for most of the increase recorded in July, further strengthening its position as Nigeria’s largest mobile network operator.
Airtel followed with 66.76 million subscribers, while Globacom and 9mobile had 23.63 million and 3.61 million subscribers respectively.
The figures put MTN’s share of Nigeria’s active mobile subscriptions at about 51.7 per cent, compared with Airtel’s 34.3 per cent, Globacom’s 12.1 per cent and 9mobile’s 1.9 per cent.
Telecommunications remain critical to Nigeria’s digital economy, with mobile networks providing millions of Nigerians with access to voice calls, internet services and digital financial services.
MTN Nigeria was incorporated in 2000 and began operations in the country in 2001 after securing a Nigerian GSM licence.
Its parent company, MTN Group, was founded in South Africa in 1994 and has grown into one of Africa’s major telecommunications groups, with operations across Africa and the Middle East.
