Telecommunications - Page 4

2G remains the dominant network, covering 94.14% of Nigeria’s population, ensuring basic connectivity across the country.
3G has strong penetration at 89.42%, serving as a bridge between legacy and modern networks.
4G coverage reaches 84.19%, reflecting growing adoption but still lagging behind older technologies.
5G penetration is extremely low at just 11.80%, indicating that its rollout is still in its infancy and mostly limited to urban areas.
The high coverage of older networks suggests continued reliance on legacy infrastructure, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

Glo is the only Nigerian mobile operator that prioritises tower ownership.
It owns 8,550 towers, far exceeding its competitors combined.
MTN, 9mobile, and Airtel own 286, 86, and 61 towers, respectively.
Most operators lease towers from third-party providers like IHS Towers and American Tower Corporation, while Glo prefers to control its infrastructure.

IHS Towers is the largest tower infrastructure provider in Nigeria, with 18,925 towers in 2023.
IHS Towers controls 62.3% of the collocated telecom towers in the country.
ATC Nigeria follows, operating 8,270 towers, significantly behind IHS Towers.
Other players include Africa Mobile Networks (1,326 towers) and smaller firms (1,852 towers).
The Nigerian tower market is highly consolidated, with IHS and American Tower Corporation dominating the space.

MTN dominates submarine fibre optic deployment among GSM operators in Nigeria, increasing its network from 1,500 km in 2018 to 17,984 km in 2022
Glo had the earliest and largest submarine fibre deployment, peaking at 19,200 km in 2012, but later scaled down to 9,800 km from 2014 onwards
Airtel has not invested in submarine fibre, with its network remaining below 25 km throughout the period
9mobile has not deployed any submarine fibre cable since 2012

Airtel has shown the most aggressive fibre optic expansion, increasing from 4,632 km in 2012 to 16,112 km in 2022
Glo initially led with 16,224 km in 2012, but its fibre optic deployment later declined and stabilised around 13,000 km from 2018 to 2022
Between 2019 and 2022, MTN's deployment remained unchanged at 14,612 km
9mobile's fibre deployment peaked in 2018 at 4,650 km and remained unchanged till 2022

Nigeria’s active mobile GSM lines reached an all-time high of 224 million in 2023, up from 222 million in 2022.
The number of active lines has grown steadily from 40 million in 2007, with notable surges in 2012 (110 million), 2018 (172 million), and 2020 (204 million).
Growth slowed between 2016 and 2017, where active lines dipped slightly from 154 million to 145 million, before resuming an upward trajectory.
With over 220 million active lines, Nigeria remains one of Africa’s largest telecom markets, driven by increasing mobile adoption.

Key takeaways:

Tecno (23.55%) and Infinix (21.73%) lead the Nigerian mobile market, making up a combined 45.28% of the market share.
Samsung (12.36%) is the leading non-Chinese brand, with Apple (9.43%) following closely behind.
Xiaomi (7.15%) and Huawei (4.34%) are emerging as significant players in Nigeria's mobile sector.
Premium brands such as Samsung (12.36%) and Apple (9.43%) have considerable but smaller market shares compared to their Chinese counterparts.
Chinese manufacturers collectively dominate over 60% of the mobile market in Nigeria.

Key takeaways:

In February 2025, Samsung and Apple dominate the mobile market in Africa.
Samsung leads with a 29.80% share of the continent's mobile market based on usage.
Apple ranks second with a 13.27% share, demonstrating resilience in markets sensitive to pricing.
Collectively, Chinese manufacturers hold more than 45% of the mobile market in Africa.
Brands under Transsion Holdings (Tecno, Infinix, Itel) together represent nearly 25% of the total market share based on usage.

Key takeaways:

Nigeria’s internet data usage increased from 721,522 TB in January to 973,455.35 TB in December, reflecting a 35% growth over the year.
The peak in consumption occurred in December 2024, while January 2024 recorded the lowest usage.
Despite a consistent upward trend during the year, a decline in internet usage was observed in February (694,804.54 TB) and September (850,249.09 TB).
The most significant jump in Nigeria's internet consumption was observed between November and December, with an increase of approximately 95,000 TB.
Throughout 2024, Nigeria experienced an average monthly increase of about 23,000 TB.
Nigeria's total internet data consumption reached 9.76 million terabytes (TB) in 2024, representing a 34% increase compared to 2023.

2G is still widely used but has dropped significantly from 57.78% in January to 41.59% in December.
4G has become the dominant mobile network in Nigeria, surpassing 2G by mid-2024 and maintaining a steady increase in market share.
3G remains stable, averaging around 9% market share,
5G adoption is slow but rising, increasing from 1.11% in January to 2.46% in December.

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