Nigeria’s telecommunications sector experienced one of its steepest declines in years as active voice subscriptions plunged by 59.7 million in 2024, following stricter enforcement of the National Identification Number–Subscriber Identity Module policy.
This is according to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s 2024 Subscriber/Network Performance Report.
The number of active mobile lines fell from 224.7 million in 2023 to 164.9 million by the end of 2024, representing a 26.6 per cent year-on-year drop.
The NCC attributed the sharp fall to the deactivation of SIM cards not linked to verified NINs and the resolution of a long-standing discrepancy in subscriber reporting by a major operator.
This large-scale clean-up stemmed from the Federal Government’s multi-year initiative to ensure all SIM cards are tied to valid NINs—a policy introduced on February 4, 2020, and jointly implemented by the NCC and the National Identity Management Commission.
After several deadline extensions between 2023 and 2024, authorities set 14 September 2024 as the final cut-off date. From 15 September, all SIMs without verified NINs were automatically barred.
The Federal Government has long maintained that the NIN–SIM linkage is crucial to curbing the criminal use of unregistered lines, enhancing national security, and strengthening the country’s digital identity system.
Officials also expect the policy to boost service delivery, deepen financial inclusion, and support digital payment infrastructure nationwide.
In September, President Bola Tinubu disclosed that over 126 million Nigerians had been captured in the National Identity Database.
He added that the government had expanded the system’s capacity from 100 million to 250 million records to ensure wider coverage and eliminate delays in the enrolment process.
The NCC report further noted that teledensity reflected the scale of the subscriber purge, dropping from 103.66 per cent in 2023 to 76.08 per cent in 2024.
Internet subscriptions were similarly affected, falling from 163.8 million to 139.3 million — a decline of 24.6 million users or 14.98 per cent.
Despite the sharp contraction in subscriber figures, network expansion continued across the country.
Nigeria achieved more than 95 per cent cellular coverage in 2024, while broadband penetration edged up slightly from 43.71 per cent to 44.43 per cent, supported by widespread availability of 3G (89 per cent), 4G (84 per cent), and 5G (13 per cent) technologies.
More recent NCC data, however, indicate that the industry has begun to stabilise. Active mobile lines grew to 173.54 million in September 2025, up from 171.57 million in August, signalling gradual recovery following the 2024 clean-up exercise.
Internet subscriptions on GSM networks also rose to 140.36 million, while teledensity improved to 80.05 per cent, pointing to renewed user growth and increased network activity.
