Nigeria’s telecommunications industry has undergone one of its most dramatic corrections in recent years, with active voice subscriptions plummeting by nearly 60 million in 2024. The Nigerian Communications Commission revealed the sharp decline in its newly released 2024 Subscriber/Network Performance Report, attributing the drop largely to the strict enforcement of the National Identification Number–Subscriber Identity Module (NIN–SIM) linkage policy.

According to NCC data, the number of active mobile lines fell from 224.7 million in 2023 to 164.9 million by December 2024 a staggering 26.6 per cent year-on-year decline. This marks one of the largest subscription resets since the liberalisation of Nigeria’s telecom sector.

NIN–SIM Enforcement at the Heart of the Decline

Regulators say the steep fall was the direct outcome of a nationwide clean-up that saw millions of SIM cards deactivated for lacking verified NINs. A major mobile network operator also corrected long-standing subscriber-count discrepancies, contributing further to the drop.

The clean-up followed a multi-year national effort to link all SIM cards to valid NINs — a security and identity-management policy launched on February 4, 2020, and jointly enforced by the NCC and the National Identity Management Commission. After several extensions, a final compliance deadline was set for September 14, 2024. From September 15, all unlinked and unverifiable SIMs were automatically switched off.

Government officials maintain that the policy aims to curb the criminal use of anonymous mobile lines, bolster national security, expand financial inclusion and strengthen the country’s digital identity framework.

In September 2024, President Bola Tinubu disclosed that over 126 million Nigerians had been captured in the National Identity Database. The government also expanded the database’s capacity to accommodate up to 250 million records in a bid to eliminate enrolment bottlenecks.

Impact Across the Sector

The scale of the subscriber purge was further reflected in Nigeria’s teledensity figures. Teledensity dropped sharply from 103.66 per cent in 2023 to 76.08 per cent in 2024.

Internet subscriptions also fell significantly, declining from 163.8 million to 139.3 million a loss of 24.6 million users, amounting to a 14.98 per cent contraction.

Despite the heavy correction, the NCC noted that network expansion continued across the country. Nigeria achieved over 95 per cent cellular coverage in 2024, while broadband penetration inched upward from 43.71 per cent to 44.43 per cent, buoyed by wider access to 3G (89 per cent), 4G (84 per cent) and emerging 5G services (13 per cent).

Signs of Recovery in 2025

Fresh industry data for 2025 indicates that the sector is gradually stabilising. Active mobile subscriptions rose to 173.54 million in September 2025, up from 171.57 million in August, signalling ongoing market adjustment following the 2024 purge.

Internet subscriptions on GSM networks also ticked upward to 140.36 million, while teledensity improved to 80.05 per cent signs that consumer activity is slowly rebounding as operators rebuild their subscriber bases under stricter regulatory conditions.

As Nigeria advances toward a fully verified digital identity ecosystem, analysts say the telecom sector’s resilience will be key to sustaining growth in mobile services, fintech innovation and the broader digital economy.