Nigeria’s telecommunications industry saw a significant rebound in January 2025, as active mobile subscriptions climbed to 169.3 million, up from 164.9 million in December 2024.
This growth was fueled by increased subscriptions to major operators MTN and Airtel, according to industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The recent increase marks a continued recovery from the sector’s sharp decline following the NCC’s enforcement of the National Identification Number (NIN)-SIM linkage policy. This policy, which required subscribers to verify their SIMs with their NINs, led to the barring of unverified SIMs in February 2024. As a result, active mobile subscriptions dropped from 218.4 million in January 2024 to a low of 154.9 million in September 2024 before beginning to rebound.