Nigeria’s mobile telecommunications landscape is undergoing a structural transition toward high-speed connectivity, according to figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Between July 2025 and June 2026, 5G connections in Nigeria surged by 40.98%, with its total market share rising from 3.27% to 4.61%. Despite requiring significant capital investments in spectrum and infrastructure, 5G registered the fastest growth rate among all mobile technologies.
4G continues to be the dominant mobile technology in Nigeria, expanding its reach alongside 5G as users gradually transition away from older networks. Its market share rose to 54.31% in June 2026, up from 51.22% in July 2025. Together, 4G and 5G now represent 58.92% of the market. Conversely, legacy networks are experiencing a clear decline. 3G saw the steepest drop, falling 31.84% to end at a 4.86% market share down from 7.13%, while 2G dropped from 38.38% to 36.22%. Combined, these legacy networks still account for 41.08% of total connections, indicating that older infrastructure retains a notable foothold despite the broader shift toward broadband.
This technological transition is taking place across a subscriber base of approximately 192 million users distributed among Nigeria’s four main network providers. MTN Nigeria leads the market with 98.64 million subscribers (51.38% share), followed by Airtel Nigeria with 66.12 million subscribers (34.44% share). Globacom holds 23.68 million subscribers (12.34% share), and 9mobile, operating as T2 in the regulatory data, accounts for 3.54 million subscribers (1.84% share).
Enjoying this article? Share it with your network!
As consumer and business demand grows for bandwidth-intensive activities such as video streaming, digital payments, cloud computing, and remote work, telecom operators continue to direct capital expenditure toward expanding broadband coverage and improving network efficiency to support higher data consumption.
Information provided by Edfrica is for awareness purposes only and does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement.
