Despite the development of the telecommunications sector, a 29.73 per cent mobile gap still exist in Nigeria as 65.4 million Nigerians are not connected to any mobile network.
The analysis of the latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed.
Meanwhile, a further analysis of the data suggests that the number of unconnected citizens may be higher considering that fact that many mobile users subscribe to more than one network, but on a surface survey, no less than 65.4 million Nigerians are not connected to any network.
Industry analysts said this was due to lack of telecoms infrastructure in rural areas and many unserved areas across the country, adding that the poverty rate was also hindering many Nigeria from using mobile phones.
The data indicated that out of 220 million Nigerian population, the total number of active mobile subscribers on all the four mobile network operators stood at 154.6 million as of September, 2024. According to the data, total active subscriptions in Nigeria dropped from 219 million in March 2024 to 154 million in September 2024.
This was discovered after the NCC adjusted subscriber figures to exclude users with no revenuegenerating activity or inactive lines for 90 days. From the data, it was gathered that the aggregate loss of subscriber data in the entire telecoms industry was significantly driven by two of the operators, Globacom and 9mobile, which shed massive weight due to unverified National Identity Numbers (NINs) during the exercise that closed on September 14, 2024.
Globacom, which had 62.1 million active subscriptions as of March, was left with 19.1 million subscriptions at the end of September, losing a whopping 43 million subscriptions. Similarly, 9mobile, which had lost numerous customers in the past years, was left with only 3.6 million active subscriptions at the end of September.
As of March, 9mobile reported subscription database of 11.6 million, indicating that the telecoms operator had lost about eight million subscriptions to the NIN verification exercise.
Meanwhile, the industry-wide phone subscriber database audit left the four Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators with a total of 154.6 million active subscriptions at the end of September from 219 million recorded in March this year.
However, MTN Nigeria still maintains its top position in the market with 78 million active subscriptions as of September, representing over 50 per cent market share in Nigeria. This was after a loss 3.7 million subscriptions to the NIN-SIM Linkage exercise, from its earlierdeclared subscriber base of 81.7 million in March.
Airtel Nigeria, which occupies the second position, ended September with 53.7 million active subscriptions, following losss of about 9.6 million subscriptions over the last six months of the NCC audit, bringing its database down from the 63.3 million it recorded in March.
Earlier this month, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida declared that all mobile lines in use in Nigeria had been linked with NINs following the conclusion of the implementation of the Federal Government’s December 2020 policy of linking every phone number to a NIN.
“Today, there is no phone number that we cannot associate with a verified NIN. Not just a number, but a number that has been verified.
“If this phone number is involved in fraud or any crime, I can now authoritatively say, based on the NIN linked to it, this is the person who is using that phone number,” Maida said, while speaking at the 2024 annual Corporate Governance Conference held in Lagos.
Industry pundits say the cleaning exercise by the Commission presents clear message that the NCC leadership is committed to industry transparency, accountability, data fidelity and sustainability of the Nigerian telecoms industry growth.
