Internet Users in Nigeria Hit 132.01m in February

By Adedapo Adesanya

According to the latest figures released by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the total number of active users of internet in Nigeria increased by 3.3 million to 132.01 million as at the end of February this year.

The telecommunications regulator stated that operators of Global Service for Mobile Communication (GSM) in the country maintained their domination of the market.

In the report, it was further said that users on the networks of mobile network operators (MNOs), including MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9Mobile, were 131.7 million.

The data revealed that other operators providing internet services in the country; Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and fixed network, had 353,780 users and 9,866 users respectively in the period under review.

In terms of new internet users recorded in the month under review, one of the GSM operators, Globacom, attracted 1.74 million new Internet users, while MTN Nigeria welcomed 0.96 million new customers on its network.

Airtel Nigeria followed with additional 0.67 million users, while 9Mobile, on the contrary, lost 100,000 customers to sustain its perpetual decline.

However, despite this, MTN maintained its position as the telco with the highest internet users at 56.5 million, followed by Airtel which serves 36.2 million customers, while Globacom and 9Mobile possess 31 million and 7.9 million active internet subscribers respectively.

Currently, 46.1 percent of Nigerians have access to internet, while the country’s share of world Internet users stood at 2.5 percent as total users of internet in the world hit 3.4 billion.

During the month under review, broadband penetration in Nigeria rose to 39.6 percent as against 38.4 percent recorded in January, driven by increasing number of internet users in the country.

This indicates that with internet penetration in the country standing at 43.1 percent against 39.6 broadband penetration in the country, high speed internet is fast spreading to users.

According to the regulator, the broadband penetration refers to the amount of the Internet access market that high speed or broadband, which include at least 3G and 4G, Internet has captured.