Latest ki data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the month of October showed that the number of mobile and Internet subscribers grew to 180.4 million and 123.6 million in October from 179.2 million and 123.2 million in September respectively.
Notably, broadband subscription recorded the highest expansion, growing 7.0 per cent m/m and 27.0 per cent y/y to 72.3m subscriptions in October.
The strong growth in broadband subscriptions pushed broadband penetration to an all-time high of 37.8 per cent, the highest level since January 2017 when NCC began compiling the data.In terms of the positioning of the industry players based on subscriber base.
MTN remained the biggest player with a subscriber base of 65.8 million (market share; 36.6 per cent) trailed by GLO NG with 50.3 million subscribers (27.9 per cent) then Airtel Nigeria with 49.1 million subscribers (27.3 per cent).
Meanwhile, 9mobile sustained its seventh consecutive months of losing subscribers with its subscriber base now at 14.8 million (8.2 per cent) from 16.4 million (9.4 per cent) at the start of the year.
Nigeria’s telecommunications sector remains the bright spot in the non-oil sector and a major contributor to the economy, supported by a vibrant and youthful population and the growing adoption of mobile internet services.
The industry players have also played their part in supporting the industry by investing heavily in network infrastructure to accelerate the 3G/4G bandwidth coverage.
