According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), active mobile subscriptions in Nigeria declined by 1% to 223.3 million in April 2023, down from 225.8 million in March, marking a loss of approximately 2.5 million subscriptions.
This was the second consecutive month of decline, following a 0.4% drop in March.
Cause of Decline
The reduction was primarily driven by a 2.8 million subscriber loss at MTN, attributed to the abandonment of SIMs not linked to the National Identification Number (NIN) as mandated by the government’s 2020 NIN-SIM policy.
This policy previously caused a significant drop, reducing subscriptions from 207.5 million in November 2020 to 188.9 million by August 2021.
Teledensity Impact
The decline in active lines led to a drop in Nigeria’s teledensity, which measures active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants, from 118.48% in March to 117.17% in April, based on a population estimate of 190 million.
Operator Performance
- MTN: The largest operator by subscriber base, MTN saw a 2.8 million decline, reducing its active subscriptions from 91.6 million in March to 88.6 million in April.
- Glo: Gained 128,017 subscriptions, maintaining its position as the second-largest operator with 60.9 million subscribers, up from 60.7 million.
- Airtel: Recorded a marginal increase of 3,285 subscribers, bringing its total to 60.33 million from 60.32 million.
- 9mobile: Achieved the highest gain, adding 262,737 subscribers, increasing its base from 13.1 million to 13.4 million.
Context of NIN-SIM Policy
The April decline follows a recovery period after the 2020 NIN-SIM policy, which led to a loss of over 20 million subscriptions by August 2021.
Subscriptions had been growing steadily for 18 months until the recent declines in March and April 2023.
