By Deborah Nnamdi
Nigerians consumed a record-breaking 1.04 million terabytes of data in May 2025, even as the number of internet users in the country continued to decline.
This is according to the latest industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which show that May’s data consumption figure is the highest monthly usage recorded since the telecom regulator began publishing such data in January 2023. In comparison, data usage stood at 983,283 terabytes in April, while the previous high was recorded in January 2025 at 1 million terabytes.
Despite this surge in data consumption, total internet subscriptions across all platforms—mobile, fixed, wired, ISP, and VoIP—dropped to 141.5 million in May from 141.9 million in April. The decline follows a recent 50% hike in data tariffs implemented by telecom operators, which has prompted some Nigerians to scale back or disconnect their internet access. Mobile network operators, including MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, bore the brunt of the losses, with their combined subscriptions falling from 141.4 million to 141 million in the same period.
Total active mobile subscriptions also experienced a slight dip, dropping to 172.4 million in May from 172.6 million recorded in April. The decline was largely driven by MTN and 9mobile. MTN, which remains Nigeria’s largest telecom operator, lost 258,313 subscribers in the month, reducing its total to 90.2 million. 9mobile, which recently entered a partnership to utilize MTN’s infrastructure, lost 291,214 subscriptions, ending May with 2.6 million users—down from 2.9 million in April.
Meanwhile, Airtel added 342,597 new subscriptions, growing its customer base to 58.9 million from 58.5 million. Globacom’s numbers remained flat at 20.6 million. In terms of market share, MTN maintained its lead with 52.33% of the mobile market, followed by Airtel with 34.17%. Globacom accounted for 11.96%, while 9mobile trailed with 1.55%.
With the overall reduction in active lines, Nigeria’s teledensity—measuring the number of telephone connections per 100 people—also declined slightly to 79.65% in May, down from 79.78% in April. The NCC calculates teledensity based on a population estimate of 216 million.
