Nigeria Hits 172M Mobile Subscriptions; MTN Tops 90M Barrier

When MTN Nigeria surpassed 90 million active subscribers in March 2025, it cemented its place in the Nigerian telecom industry.

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) most recent industry figures, the number of active mobile subscriptions across all four networks rose to 172.4 million in March.

According to the data, mobile network carriers are slowly getting back on their feet following the NIN-SIM audit last year, which erased more than 60 million memberships from their database.

From the market share MTN held a 52.48% market share of all mobile subscriptions with 90.4 million active connections.

With 33.78% of the market, Airtel Nigeria, the second-largest operator, held onto its position. According to NCC data, Airtel has 58.2 million active subscriptions as of March.

By the end of March, Globacom, the far third player, had 20.7 million active subscriptions and held a 12.01% market share.

9mobile, which had 2.8 million subscribers, was still in the abyss. Only 1.72% of the telecom market share is currently held by the telecom provider that has seen a steady drop in consumers.

9mobile’s number was constant between February and March, indicating that there were no new activations or network exits during that month, in contrast to other carriers that had a gain in active subscribers.

Although millions of consumers have left 9mobile due to constantly terrible service, the stability observed between February and March can be attributed to users’ inability to switch networks during that time.

The several issues with 9mobile which has brought widespread speculations that 9mobile was closing down in March were sparked by the subscribers’ constant complaints about the declining quality of their service and their difficulty to switch networks.

In a statement issued by its management, 9mobile acknowledged that some customers had been having trouble migrating, but denied imposing any restrictions.

“9mobile vehemently denies the untrue and deceptive rumours that our operations in Nigeria are being shut down.

“These allegations are completely unfounded and intended to incite needless fear among our esteemed subscribers.

We are aware of the difficulties some customers have recently encountered, especially with Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a service that makes network switching smooth.

The company said, “We would like to make it clear that 9mobile has never prohibited users from switching to other networks.”

9mobile attributes the problem to a technical glitch. The business claimed that the problems its clients were experiencing were due to “temporary technical challenges,” but it insisted that it is still completely in compliance with industry rules and is dedicated to providing fair, transparent, and customer-focused services.

“Most of these problems have since been fixed. We are actively working to ensure a smoother experience for all customers, however there may still be some slight delays because of continuing system adjustments,” the statement continued.

As a proudly Nigerian brand, the company stated it is still strong and unwavering in its resolve to overcome obstacles.

“These disruptions are part of a broader transformation effort aimed at modernizing our infrastructure and improving overall service quality,” 9mobile said in response to the service outages that some of its customers were experiencing across the nation.

It added that major enhancements would shortly result from its continuous investments in network upgrades and service development, guaranteeing dependable connectivity for people, companies, and communities.