A 50 per cent hike in telecom tariffs is taking a toll on Nigeria’s communications sector, with fresh figures showing that operators lost 2.4 million subscribers in July alone.
Data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed that the country’s active telephone users dropped from 171.7 million in June to 169.3 million in July, dragging national teledensity down from 79.22 per cent to 78.11 per cent.
Internet subscriptions also dropped sharply within the same period.
Total users fell from 141.1 million to 138.7 million, while broadband subscriptions slipped from 105.7 million to 104 million.
Ironically, the contraction in subscriber numbers has been matched by a surge in data usage.
NCC’s records show consumption rose from 1,044,073 terabytes in June to 1,131,256 terabytes in July.
Reports from MTN and Airtel confirm this trend, with the average MTN customer now using about 14GB monthly, while Airtel 4G users average 10.7GB.
Analysts attribute this paradox to two major factors: wider adoption of faster 4G and 5G services, and the deepening integration of the Internet into daily life — from work and learning to shopping and entertainment.
NCC noted that 4G now accounts for 50.85 percent of penetration, compared to 38.60 percent on 2G.
Still, inflation and economic hardship remain the biggest barrier for millions of Nigerians, making regular data subscriptions harder to sustain despite their necessity.
Interestingly, while most operators recorded subscriber losses, T2 (formerly 9mobile) gained 290,601 new users in July — its first growth in five years — thanks to a new infrastructure sharing deal with MTN.
The network now serves 2.72 million customers, giving it a 1.61 per cent market share