On December 9, 2020, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) embarked on another audit of the Subscriber Registration Database. This announcement led to the suspension of registration and sale of SIM cards by operators which was later lifted on April 19, 2021 with some new guidelines.
From December 2020 to March 2021, there was a constant decrease in the number of GSM subscribers in Nigeria.
Subscriber numbers dropped to ~192 million, a number close to March 2020 figures. Airtel had the biggest drop in customers by 9%, followed by MTN (6%), Globacom (4%) and 9mobile(1%) from December 2020 to March 2021. Airtel lost ~5.2m customers, MTN – ~4.8m customers, Globacom – ~1.9m customers and 9mobile – ~131k
The telecommunications industry is one of the major contributors to Nigeria’s GDP.
