However, despite this growth, the federal government has officially fallen short of the ambitious 70% broadband penetration target set in the National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020–2025), which expires this month.

According to the latest industry data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), total internet subscriptions in the country reached 144.7 million in November 2025, a steady climb from the 136 million recorded in the same period in 2024.

Technology Breakdown: The Shift in Connectivity

While Mobile (GSM) remains the undisputed king of Nigerian connectivity, 2025 saw a notable surge in “fixed-line” and ISP-led technologies as businesses and high-income households moved toward more stable fiber and satellite options.

Subscription Growth by Segment:

The Data Consumption Explosion

The most staggering statistic of 2025 is not the number of users, but how much data they are consuming. Nigerians consumed a record 1.24 million terabytes (TB) of data in November 2025 alone.

Total data consumption between January and November 2025 reached 11.86 million TB, representing a 34.96% increase compared to the 8.79 million TB consumed during the same period in 2024.

This surge is attributed to the rise of remote work, video streaming (TikTok, YouTube), and the transition of government services to digital platforms.

Market Share: The “Big Four” Leaderboard

MTN Nigeria continues to dominate the market, holding over half of the total internet subscriptions.

1. MTN: 78.8 Million
2. Airtel: 50.3 Million
3. Globacom: 14.2 Million
4. T2 (9mobile): 771,035

This small increase, however, brings a larger problem. Nigeria is falling far behind its National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020–2025), which aims to achieve 70% penetration by the end of this year.

As of April, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recorded 104.3 million broadband subscriptions. The figure, while looking large, loses its significance when weighed against the country’s actual population and connectivity aim. 

Five years into the Broadband Plan, Nigeria has only gained about 8.3% points in penetration, growing from 39.85% in March 2020 to 48.15% now. 

For a plan that was supposed to boost digital access across the country, the numbers are not so good.

There’s no single cause to blame, but several structural problems are obvious. Top of the list is the cost and politics of Right of Way (RoW). 

States charge exorbitant fees for network operators to lay fibre-optic cables, making expansion financially draining. Only seven states have waived these charges. Others continue to act as roadblocks to progress.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, spoke at a recent telecom forum: “Major obstacles to telecom infrastructure development have been issues within the purview of sub-national governments, including right-of-way issues, multiple taxation, and infrastructure resilience. Reducing right-of-way charges and eliminating multiple taxation will facilitate network expansion and improve connectivity across the country.”

Maida also pointed out that unless states reduce these barriers, they won’t be able to benefit from the economic potential broadband brings. That includes everything from job creation to digital entrepreneurship.

“To fully realise the benefits of digitisation and meet the NBP targets, state governments must ease regulatory burdens and drive policies that are investor-friendly for the telecommunications and ICT sectors,” he added.

The country’s data consumption patterns show an equally complicated state. In January, Nigeria recorded over 1 million terabytes of data use. By February, it dropped to 893,054.80 terabytes. It recovered in March but dipped again in April to 983,283.43 terabytes. That kind of fluctuation shows that many Nigerians are cutting down on data usage.

This reduction in demand is closely linked to price. In January, the Federal Government approved a 50% increase in telecom tariffs. Voice calls jumped from ₦6.40 to ₦9.60 per minute. SMS rose from ₦4 to ₦6. And 1GB of data now costs ₦431.25, up from ₦287.50. This has already derailed the Plan’s goal of achieving an average data price of ₦360 per GB by the end of 2025.

Operators say the hike is good for their revenue, but the many Nigerians, especially those using narrowband connections, appear to have dropped off entirely, leaving high-speed broadband usage mostly to those who can afford Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) services.

A key component of the NBP was the localisation of smartphone production. The goal was to establish a smartphone assembly plant by 2023 to bring down the cost of basic smartphones to ₦18,000. That plant never came. 

Today, an entry-level smartphone costs over ₦100,000, an amount far out of reach for many Nigerians. With affordability off the table, access remains limited.

Another metric from the Plan was to have 70% of all mobile users on 4G by 2023. As of April 2025, only 49.27% of the 172 million active mobile lines in Nigeria are on 4G.

Put simply, we’re behind on every target.

From where I stand, this is about millions of Nigerians cutting themselves off from the digital economy, not because they don’t want access, but because the system around them hasn’t made it possible. 

Broadband is no longer a luxury. It’s infrastructure, like water, electricity, and roads. But instead of speeding toward universal access, we’re stuck in neutral.

If Nigeria is serious about digital resilience, then both federal and state actors must act like it. Until then, broadband will remain what it is now—limited, expensive, and unevenly distributed.

The EVC, represented by Mrs Nnena Ukoha, Head, Corporate Communications, called on Nigerians to explore opportunities in the Digital Economy to eradicate poverty in the country.

Speaking on the topic, Poverty Eradication in Nigeria: Leveraging Opportunities in a Digital Economy, Danbatta noted that ”For most developing countries, particularly those with large populations, inadequate infrastructure has made it difficult to participate as equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production and dissemination.  This portends an unequal distribution of access, resources and opportunities in this new economy, the Digital Economy.  To avert the birth of a new type of poverty (Information Poverty), the ICT gap (digital divide) between the developed and developing nations must be bridged.”  

That Nigeria like most developing nations is not enjoying the full benefits of the ICT revolution due to inadequate telecommunication infrastructure, capacity to maintain existing infrastructure, and policies for equitable public participation as producers and consumers of information and knowledge.

“A nation’s development is measured in economic terms such as per capita income, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Gross National Product (GNP), among other indices. Indices such as level of literacy, social development, human capital development, cultural innovation and technological preparedness are not regarded as a measure of development.  If we must tap into the ICT revolution, then it is time for a paradigm shift!  The traditional economic terms are not a reflection of the new age of the Digital Economy “he said.

On efforts made by the Nigerian government, “There are several past and ongoing efforts by the Nigerian Government to alleviate poverty through ICT using organizations and programmes like the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), using the offices of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) across the country as ICT hubs, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to ensure that telecommunications services are accessible to the widest number of people (and communities) at affordable prices. USPF has poverty-reducing activities like the Community Resource Centers, USPF Hackathon, RUBI – Rural Broadband Initiative,  UnICC – University InterCampus Connectivity,  BTS – Base Transceiver Stations, IRC – Information Resource Centres, SKC – School Knowledge Centres, and the E-Health Project. “

The EVC said that “NCC will continue to support the vision of the present government to put Nigeria amongst the top twenty in the comity of Nations and to align our developmental goals in keeping with the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but particularly the goal to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere which is currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day, by year 2030. 

He listed initiatives at the NCC directly or indirectly target poverty eradication to include;

“Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme: Transforming the Academics: Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions, ADAPTI is aimed at bridging the digital divide existing in academia with the provision of computers and other ICT facilities to equip the lecturers and other experts in order to improve ICT skills and also to enrich the students. The overriding objective of this intervention has been to elicit the pervasive application of ICT skills in academia for enhanced staff output, institutional efficiency, and student enculturation to e-based learning for sustainable national growth.” 

“Digital Awareness Programme (DAP): this is a special intervention programme to address the digital information knowledge gap in the country, especially among the teeming youthful population.  On the last count, the DAP Project supports 229 Secondary Schools across the Six (6) Geopolitical Zones of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory. The strategy in this programme is to expose schools and colleges to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) awareness, usage and application by facilitating access to ICT tools by the provision of twenty one (21) Desktop Computers, Local Area Network, Printers, Scanners, VSAT Dish and deployment of one Year Bandwidth Subscription for Internet Access.”

“NCC- Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) Projects: Nigeria’s ICT flagship institution, the Digital Bridge, DBI, came into existence in 2004 to impact on the national ICT human capital building efforts by bridging the ICT knowledge gap.” 

“Frequency Auction: Contributing to National Purse: The Nigerian telecom regulator has contributed to the Federation Account from proceeds of frequency auctions and licensing. The frequencies auctioned, are in turn used for the deployment of services for poverty reduction and the benefit of the citizenry. The Commission has a clear understanding of this value chain and is determined to uphold it. “

“Value Added Services (VAS): Telecommunication has given birth to several value-added services that open up benefits to all cadre of people irrespective of location and level of education. These VAS are great channels for revenue generation. Some VAT are content development, Phone repair network, IT device accessories sales market (phone pouches, screen covers etc), Ringback tones, and even government agencies providing service on telecom platform e.g NAFDAC – drug authentication code. “

On broadband and poverty , “The Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020–2025 (the “Broadband Plan”) devotes an entire section to targets, strategies and roadmaps to promote pervasive broadband deployment, increased broadband adoption, usage and availability to all at affordable prices.  These all point to government’s commitment to harmonizing and utilizing the benefits derivable from ICT for the good of all. “

“In 2020, the latest National Broadband Plan was approved to foster fuller economic exploitation of ICTs. This means that there will be more pervasive deployment and usage of ICT to push the development and economic attractiveness of the nation.”

He assured that The Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to sustainable development of the ICT subsector for the growth of the economy and the eradication of poverty.  “This was made evident during the just concluded Communications sector retreat where the Ministry of Communications and the agencies under it converged to chart a five-year plan that would make communications services, affordable, accessible, and available to all persons in Nigeria.”

Danbatta concluded that “The credit for Nigeria’s ambitious broadband pursuit is traced to the potentials and prospects of broadband technology, the ease of deployment and the vast opportunities available through it.  The Commission will continue to put strategies in place to pursue last mile deployment of broadband. This would ensure small businesses are positioned to compete globally and communities and individuals are able to create wealth through access to ICT.”

“By providing access to information, making markets more efficient, fostering social inclusion, and equalizing opportunities in rural areas, ICT offers an innovative and unprecedented tool to directly reduce poverty.”

Other speakers at the event include; Founder and Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu; Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, Director General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN); Sheila Ojei, Director Strategy, Funding and Stakeholders Management, LSETF; The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Lagos State, Mrs Cecilia Bolaji Dada and Dr Oluseye Ajuwon, Economist and Consultant, University of Lagos.