Industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown that the number of active mobile subscriptions in the country increased by 0.72% from 218.4 million in January 2024 to 219.97 million in February 2024. The growth was primarily driven by significant gains in subscribers reported by the two largest operators in the country, MTN and Airtel. This indicates an increase of 1.57 million subscribers in February, despite the NCC's directive that telcos should disconnect subscribers whose SIMs are not linked to their NIN.

An increase in MTN subscribers (up 1.1 million), the largest operator by subscriber number, increased the overall industry numbers, bringing its total active subscriptions to 80.9 million from 79-78 million in January. Airtel added 434,175 new. Subscribers during the month under review. This increased its subscriber database from 62.6 million in January to 63 million in February. Globacom also saw an increase, adding 176,756 new subscribers during the month. Globacom reported 62.1 million active subscriptions in February, compared to 61.9 million the previous month. However, 9mobile, the fourth mobile operator, saw a decline for the month as the company's subscriptions fell by 151,517 subscribers to 13.6 million active subscriptions in February 2024, down from 13.8 million in January.

The country's teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants in an area, increased slightly from 100.75% in January to 101.47%. The increase in mobile subscriber numbers also led to a rise in broadband penetration to 43.08% from 42.53% in January. Our outlook on the telecoms sector remains positive in the medium to long term. We anticipate sustained growth driven by Nigeria’s expanding population, the shift towards a digital economy, increased smartphone usage, growing digital awareness, rapid expansion of 4G networks, and the ongoing rollout of the 5G spectrum. However, the recent directive from the NCC requiring telcos to disconnect subscribers whose SIM cards are not linked to their NINs may lead to a short-term decline in mobile subscriber numbers. This poses a slight risk to telco revenue growth in 2024.