MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9Mobile lose over 3 million Internet subscribers in one month

Telecommunications companies in Nigeria have recorded a fall in internet subscriptions amounting to 9.6 per cent within a month. This information was contained in the report of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for April 2021. The NCC reported that 9mobile, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom and MTN Nigeria had their percentage of internet subscribers decline by 9.6 per cent overall.

MTN Nigeria lost more internet subscribers than the rest with 1.13 million subscribers dropping from the network. Globacom followed by losing 1.09 million subscribers and Airtel Nigeria lost 751,457 subscribers. 9mobile lost the least subscribers, 195,241. The GSM subscribers’ data also showed a continuous decline in April. Overall, all telcos subscriber base declined by 6.8 per cent. Globacom lost more subscribers amounting to 2.32 million (4.38 per cent), followed by MTN losing 1.1 million subscribers (1.46 per cent), Airtel Nigeria lost 207,542 subscribers (0.41 per cent) and 9mobile lost 71,228 subscribers (0.55 per cent).

In December 2020, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, announced the mandatory exercise of linking SIM cards with individual National Identification Numbers (NIN). This exercise has dragged on for six months disrupting the telco atmosphere and impacting negatively on industry growth. In MTN’s first-quarter report, it stated that the inability to purchase new MTN SIMS had caused a decline in their market shares while Airtel Africa also said that it suffered financial implications on its business.

But the NCC has also been affected. Telecoms which contributed 17.64 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2020, contributed just 7.69 per cent to the same GDP in the first quarter of 2021. The teledensity has kept on shrinking, from 107.14 per cent in December 2020, to 98.86 per cent in April 2021.