Nigeria’s telecommunications industry recorded one of its sharpest corrections in recent years, with active voice subscriptions falling by 59.7 million in 2024 following the strict enforcement of the National Identification Number–Subscriber Identity Module policy, the Nigerian Communications Commission said in its 2024 Subscriber/Network Performance Report.
The active subscriber base dropped from 224.7 million in 2023 to 164.9 million by December 2024, marking a 26.6 per cent year-on-year decline.
The telecom regulator said the significant fall was driven by the removal of SIMs not linked to verifiable NINs and the rectification of a long-standing subscriber-count discrepancy by a major mobile network operator.
The clean-up followed the Federal Government’s multi-year drive to link all SIM cards to valid NINs, a policy launched on 4 February 2020 and jointly enforced by the NCC and the National Identity Management Commission. After several deadline extensions between 2023 and 2024, authorities set a final cut-off date of 14 September 2024. From 15 September, any SIM without a verified NIN was automatically deactivated.
The government introduced the linkage primarily to curb the criminal use of anonymous SIM cards, strengthen national security, and create a more reliable national identity database. The policy is also expected to improve service delivery, expand financial inclusion and support digital payment systems across the economy.
In September, President Bola Tinubu announced that more than 126 million Nigerians had been enrolled in the National Identity Database, as the Federal Government expanded the system’s capacity from 100 million to 250 million records to ensure universal coverage and eliminate bottlenecks across the enrolment process.
Further, the report stated that teledensity mirrored the scale of the clean-up, falling from 103.66 per cent in 2023 to 76.08 per cent in 2024. Internet subscriptions also declined, dropping from 163.8 million to 139.3 million, a loss of 24.6 million users, representing a 14.98 per cent contraction during the period under review.
Despite the reduction in subscriber numbers, the regulator reported continued progress in coverage expansion. Nigeria achieved over 95 per cent cellular coverage, while broadband penetration rose marginally from 43.71 per cent to 44.43 per cent, supported by widespread access to 3G (89 per cent), 4G (84 per cent) and 5G (13 per cent) networks.
However, fresh NCC industry data show that the sector has begun to stabilise and recover. Active telephone subscriptions rose to 173.54 million in September 2025, up from 171.57 million in August, reflecting continued market adjustment after the 2024 clean-up.
Internet subscriptions on GSM networks also increased slightly to 140.36 million, while teledensity improved to 80.05 per cent, signalling renewed momentum in user growth and network activity.
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