Nigeria’s Telephone Subscribers Hit 222.6M in 2022, Lagos Four Other States Lead Internet Growth

A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that Nigeria’s telephone subscribers hit 222.6 million at the end of 2022.

Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Ogun, and Abuja were among the top five states with mobile Internet subscriptions in Nigeria in 2022, according to the report.

Telephone subscribers in Nigeria for 2022 saw an increase of 27.1 million subscribers over the 195.5 million subscribers recorded at the end of 2021. The NBS report also revealed a total of 154.9 million active internet subscribers at the end of 2022 compared to 142 million recorded at the end of 2021.

On state-by-state analysis, the report showed that Nigeria’s most populous state, Lagos, had the highest number of active telephone users in 2022 which stood at 26.5 million, followed by Ogun State with 13 million users, and Kano in third position with 12.4 million telephone users. On the other hand, Bayelsa recorded the least number of internet users with only 1.1 million recorded.

In the report, it is interesting to note that the majority of telephone users in Nigeria in 2022 were mostly MTN subscribers, owing to the fact that the telecoms company is the largest in Nigeria. MTN Mobile subscribers increased by 10.5% to 75.6 million in the year to the end of December 2022.

On the other hand, Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Ogun, and Abuja which were the top five states with mobile Internet subscriptions in Nigeria in 2022, collectively accounted for 33.52 percent (51.90 million) of the total number of mobile subscriptions (154.85 million) in the country in 2022.

As regards the Active Voice and Internet, Porting and Tariff Information fourth quarter (Q4) report, Lagos state had the highest number of active internet subscribers in Q4 2022 with 18,702,394, followed by Ogun with 9,206,614 and Kano with 8,470,131.

On the other hand, Bayelsa recorded the least with 1,101,002, followed by Ebonyi and Ekiti with 1,264,825 and 1,474,970, respectively.

Investors King understands that the surge of mobile Internet subscriptions in Nigeria has translated to increased digital inclusion for many citizens in the country, and the continued growth of the digital economy.

Nigeria’s internet users is projected to grow to 117 million in 2027, while internet penetration is predicted to reach 48 percent in 2027.

It is worth noting that with more than three-quarters of Nigerian web traffic being generated via smartphones, Nigeria ranks second on the list of African countries based on the share of traffic via mobile.