Telecom operators in Nigeria, comprising MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and different Web Service Suppliers (ISPs), are seeing unprecedented development in knowledge consumption on their networks, a growth that’s placing extra strain on them to speculate extra in capability.
In line with the newest business knowledge launched by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC), Nigerians consumed 1.15 million terabytes of information in August, increased than 1.13 million terabytes recorded in July.
This got here as the best month-to-month consumption to date and continued the info utilization development trajectory that began in January 2025.
Nevertheless, the heavy utilization, principally concentrated within the city areas like Lagos and Abuja, is placing strain on the prevailing infrastructure of the telcos, resulting in intermittent poor high quality of expertise for web customers.
The NCC confirmed this in its newest report on community capability, the place it admitted that the telcos’ present capability is insufficient to help the rising urge for food of Nigerians for knowledge.
Capability hampers the standard of service
The report of investigations on the community by the NCC revealed that present points, equivalent to dropped video calls, buffering on streams, failed cellular funds, and sluggish downloads, are the results of insufficient capability throughout the networks.
However the Fee identified that the capability constraint is skilled solely in cities the place there are heavy knowledge customers.
“Capability restrictions are concentrated in city zones; the influence on rural service is extraordinarily low, reinforcing that this constraint is a localized subject tied to high-density areas,” the Fee added.
- Earlier knowledge by the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS) established that Lagos State has the best variety of web customers in Nigeria, an element contributing to the poor high quality of expertise web subscribers have been complaining about in current instances within the state.
- Customers in Ogun, Kano, Kano Kaduna and the FCT are additionally not left of the capability constraint as additionally they home numerous web customers.
In line with the NCC, the telcos must improve their investments to bridge this capability hole, particularly in densely populated areas.
The Fee additionally needs the operators to undertake a multi-faceted method specializing in two objectives, which embrace “aggressively deploying 5G expertise and optimizing the capability of the prevailing 4G (LTE) community to enhance efficiency for all customers.”
Telcos’ income and investments
Whereas the rising demand is placing strain on the prevailing infrastructure of the telecom operators, the service suppliers are additionally seeing a rise in income from knowledge.
Going by the newest monetary outcomes of MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria, knowledge is now the income driver for telecom operators in Nigeria.
- In Q2 2025, MTN Nigeria’s knowledge income jumped by 85.6% to N701 billion from N377 billion recorded in the identical interval final yr.
- For Airtel Nigeria, knowledge income throughout the similar interval rose by 60.3% to N260 billion ($168 million) in contrast with N185.4 billion ($117 million) recorded in the identical interval of 2024.
The CEO of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, admitted that the rising demand for knowledge requires extra funding and the corporate is doing simply that.
“Cities like Lagos are rising at lightning velocity, extra individuals, extra companies, extra units. We recognise that knowledge is the brand new oxygen. That’s why we’re investing closely in 5G and fibre to construct a sensible, scalable community that may carry the load of Nigeria’s digital future,” he stated.
MTN Nigeria stated additionally it is ramping up investments to broaden its capability for the rising demand for knowledge within the nation.
Within the first half of 2025, MTN reported that it invested N565.7 billion to speed up the growth of its community infrastructure, marking a 288.4% improve in capital expenditure in comparison with the identical interval final yr.
MTN stated the surge in capex, excluding lease funds, was needed to fulfill rising knowledge site visitors and enhance service high quality for its over 84 million subscribers.
“The accelerated capex in H1 was deployed to help development in knowledge site visitors in addition to improve service high quality and person expertise,” the corporate acknowledged.
Airtel Africa, the father or mother firm of Airtel Nigeria, stated it additionally elevated capital expenditure in Nigeria to $39 million within the second quarter of 2025, up 1.7 million from $38 million in the identical interval final yr.
“In Nigeria, capital expenditure for the quarter ended 30 June 2025 was $39m, in comparison with $38m in the identical interval final yr,” the corporate reported.
Web subscriptions fall
Regardless of the surge in knowledge utilization throughout the networks, the variety of units actively related to the web has not been rising, reflecting that extra Nigerians aren’t being related, however present customers are consuming extra knowledge.
- In line with NCC’s knowledge, lively web subscriptions within the nation are declining. As of August, whole web subscriptions throughout cellular, mounted, and ISP networks stood at 140.3 million.
- Whereas this exhibits development compared with the 138 million recorded in July, it’s a decline compared with the 142.2 million lively subscriptions recorded in the beginning of the yr.
- Business analysts, nevertheless, attributed the decline to the 50% tariff applied early this yr. In line with them, this compelled many subscribers who subscribed on a number of units when knowledge was low cost to restrict themselves to important subscriptions.
What you must know
The telecom business has turn into one of many strongest drivers of Nigeria’s economic system, due to its constant and increasing contribution to the nation’s Gross Home Product (GDP).
Within the second quarter of 2025, the Info and Communications Expertise (ICT) sector, which is essentially powered by telecommunications, accounted for 11.18% of Nigeria’s GDP.
The ICT sector consists of Telecommunications and Info Providers, Publishing, Movement Image, Sound Recording and Music Manufacturing, and Broadcasting. It recorded an actual development price of 6.61% year-on-year in Q2 2025.
In line with the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS) GDP Report, the sector’s efficiency confirmed notable enchancment, rising by 2.23 proportion factors from the 4.38% development price recorded within the corresponding quarter of 2024.
On a quarter-on-quarter foundation, ICT development accelerated to 9.58%, underscoring its very important function in sustaining Nigeria’s financial growth.
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