NIN: MTN, Glo, 9mobile, Airtel lose 11.8 million subscribers in four months

The number of telecom subscribers in the country dropped by 11.84 million in four months, according to latest industry statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission..

The recent report shows that telecommunications operators in the country recorded yet another loss of 4.13 million active subscribers in February 2021, as the industry recorded 195.73 million GSM users in the month.

The telcos had lost 46,648 subscribers in November 2020, followed by a drop of 3.38 million subscribers in December 2020 and then a loss of 4.29 million subscribers in January 2021.

The four major telecoms service providers also recorded zero porting activities, following the NCC’s directive in December for the telcos to suspend sales, registration and activation of new SIM cards, hindering porting activities as well.



A further breakdown of subscriber statistics showed that Airtel once again lost the highest number of subscribers in February.

The telco dropped by 1.99 million subscribers from 53.42 million subscribers in January to 51.43 million customers.

MTN followed with a loss of 1.68 million subscribers. It had 79.03 million subscribers in January, but the figure fell to 77.34 million in February.

Globacom lost 415,071 subscribers, recording a total of 54.17 million subscribers as against 54.59 million users in January.


While 9mobile, which had 12.80 million users in January, lost 35,698 subscribers in February with a total of 12.77 million users.

Globacom, which replaced Airtel as the second largest operator in January, retained the position with 27.68 per cent market share, while Airtel followed with 26.28 per cent market share.

MTN remained Nigeria’s largest mobile network operator with 39.52 per cent market share. 9mobile remained the fourth operator with 6.41 per cent market share.

Nigeria’s tele-density dropped by 2.17 per cent as the number of subscriptions dropped from 200.21 million in January to 196.07 million in February.


Broadband penetration continued to fall as February recorded 42.06 per cent from 42.93 per cent in January, a 3.87 per cent decrease from 45.93 per cent recorded in October 2020.

Nigeria’s mobile Internet subscribers decreased by 2.76 million in February, with the total number of Internet users dropping to 148.13 million from 150.89 million in January.

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