NBS Report: Lagos Remains Nigerian Telcos’ Most Penetrated Market According to Q3 2019 Reports

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest telecommunications data report has disclosed that the number of voice subscribers active in Q3 of 2019 was 179,176,930. This shows a 2.96% increase from the 174,024,116 recorded in Q2 2019, and 10.58% (162,032,481) from the same period in 2018.

The reports shows that MTN retained its position as the leading telco with 65.38 million subscribers. Globacom follows suit with 49.2 million while Airtel follows closely with 48.9 million subscribers. 9mobile on the other hand continues to trail the pack with just 15.3 million subscribers.

Other networks accounted for just 393,578 of the total figure.

Although MTN had the highest number of subscribers it had the littlest growth in the quarter with just 0.29% increase in Q3. Airtel had the most growth in the quarter increasing by 6.49% from Q2 of 2019. Other telcos, Globacom and 9mobile, had 5.62% and 3.95% QoQ growth respectively.

Lagos state, the economic capital of the country, got the highest number of subscribers in terms of active voice per state in Q3 2019 with 23 million subscribers.

Of the over 23 million subscribers, Airtel seems to have the grip on users in the state with over 7 million. MTN and Globacom both have 6.7 million and 6.3 million subscribers respectively, while 9mobile has just about 3.3 million.

Lagos is closely followed by Ogun and Kano states in terms of number with 10.63 million and 6.9 million active voice subscribers respectively.

Bayelsa and Ebonyi states have the least number of subscribers with 925,489 and 1.63 million active voice subscribers, respectively.

As active voice subscribers rose, so did the number of active internet subscribers. According to the report, 123.1 million subscribers were active on the internet in Q3 of 2019 indicating 0.40% growth QoQ from Q2 of 2019 and 18.98% YoY from Q3 of 2018.

Once again MTN leads the pack with 51.6 million subscribers while Airtel comes next with 33.1 million subscribers while Globacom accounts for 29.3 million subscribers. 9mobile trails once again with 8.4 million subscribers and other networks with 453,946 subscribers.

Although it trails the pack, 9mobile had the most significant growth of the group at 6.31% while MTN had the least gain with 0.95%. Once again, Lagos state had the highest number of subscribers in terms of active internet per state in Q3 2019 with 16.87 million.

The state is closely followed by Ogun and Kano states with 7.5 million and 6.4 million respectively. While Bayelsa and Ebonyi states have the least number of subscribers again.

The report indicates that 9mobile had the most incoming porters with 9,823 porters while Globacom had the least. Airtel had the highest number of outgoing porters.