MTN Loses over One Million Users as Mobile Subscribers Shrink

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Africa’s leading mobile network provider, MTN has lost over a million subscribers in Nigeria according to the latest monthly subscribers data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission for February, 2019.

The number of active subscribers to mobile services in the country has also reduced by 348,778 in February, 2019 according to the data as reported by The Punch earlier today.

The statistics  showed that out of all the mobile network providers, MTN lost 1.09 million subscribers in the month of February while other providers gained new subscribers.

In January, the four mobile network operators had a total of 174,012,136 active users, which reduced by 0.2 percent to 173,670,035 as of the end of February.

Further analysis of the data indicated that Globacom gained 400, 879 new subscribers; Airtel added 4,559 new users to its network; and 9mobile’s subscribers increased by 345,264.

According to NCC data, MTN remains the largest mobile network provider in the country by number of subscribers, owning 37.83 per cent market share; it is followed by Globacom with 6.54 percent market share, while Airtel is the third largest with 25.95 percent market share and 9mobile holds 9.65 per cent market share.

Meanwhile, the number of Internet users on mobile devices increased by 850, 153 in February 2019, with MTN adding the highest number of subscribers of about 607, 462.

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A breakdown of the data showed that Globacom and 9mobile lost 114, 268 and 74, 031 Internet users, respectively. Airtel on the other hand added 430,990 new Internet users to its network.

The Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, recently said the growth in the data subscribers was an indication of the increasing demand for reliable connectivity to drive socio-economic activities.

‘As the economy of Nigeria continues to look up and with pressures from global financial markets, and its position as a major commercial centre in the West African Region, the demand for reliable and modern telecommunications infrastructure is enormous. Telecommunications act as an enabler to drive socio-economic growth, developments and modernisation across all sectors of the economy,’ the EVC said.

 

Samson Oyedeyi