MTN Nigeria Crosses 100 million Active Lines, Becomes First Local Telco to Hit Milestone
MTN Nigeria has crossed the 100 million mark for active mobile lines, with NCC data showing the operator added 2.22 million lines in July to take more than half of the country’s mobile market.
MTN Nigeria has become the first telecommunications operator in the country to record more than 100 million active mobile lines, marking a major milestone for Nigeria’s telecoms industry.
Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that MTN’s active lines increased to 100.86 million in July 2026, up from 98.64 million in June.
The operator added 2.22 million active lines in one month, representing its strongest monthly increase so far this year and its biggest gain since November 2024.
The July figure gives MTN approximately 51.7 per cent of Nigeria’s total active mobile market.
Airtel ranked second with 66.76 million active lines, followed by Globacom with 23.63 million and 9mobile, also identified as T2, with 3.61 million.
Across the industry, Nigeria’s total active mobile subscriptions rose to 195.11 million in July from 192.23 million in June.
Although the national figure has recovered from the decline associated with the enforcement of the National Identification Number-SIM linkage exercise, it remains below the more than 200 million active lines recorded before the full impact of the exercise.
MTN’s achievement represents a Nigerian telecoms milestone, rather than a first for the wider African telecoms industry.
Some reports have described the development as MTN becoming the first telecom operator in Africa to cross 100 million subscribers. That description requires qualification because MTN Group operates across several African and Middle Eastern markets and had already surpassed 300 million customers across its operations.
The Nigerian operation is now responsible for a significant share of the group’s overall customer base.
The NCC figures also need to be understood as counts of active subscriptions rather than a count of unique individuals.
A customer who owns multiple SIM cards can therefore appear more than once in the industry figures.
This also explains why the NCC’s subscriber figures can differ from MTN Nigeria’s own reported customer numbers.
In its first-half 2026 financial results, MTN Nigeria reported 92.2 million subscribers as of June 30 using its internal reporting measure, while the NCC recorded 98.64 million active lines for the operator in the same month.
The difference reflects the respective counting and reporting methodologies rather than necessarily indicating that millions of customers are missing from either database.
On the NCC’s measurement, MTN increased from about 94.2 million active lines in January to 100.86 million in July.
That represents an increase of more than 6.6 million active lines in seven months, equivalent to an average of roughly 31,000 additional lines a day.
The milestone comes as Nigeria’s mobile market continues to recover from the disruption caused by the NIN-SIM registration and verification exercise.
Growing demand for mobile internet services, smartphone adoption and digital services is also supporting renewed growth in telecommunications.
For MTN Nigeria, data has become a major driver of the business.
The company reported approximately N1.70 trillion in data revenue during the first half of 2026, while total service revenue approached N3 trillion. Profit after tax stood at N707.5 billion during the period.
MTN also reported 55.7 million active data users at the end of the first half of the year.
The company’s chief executive officer, Karl Toriola, has pointed to commercial momentum and increasing smartphone adoption as factors supporting the company’s growth.
However, the rapid increase in active lines also presents a challenge for the network.
More subscribers create greater opportunities for data services, mobile financial services and other digital products, but they also increase pressure on network capacity as customers consume more data.
MTN Nigeria spent N620.5 billion on capital expenditure during the first half of 2026, excluding leases, as it continued investing in its network and infrastructure.
The latest NCC figures therefore establish a significant milestone: MTN Nigeria has officially crossed 100 million active lines.
The next test for the operator will be whether its network infrastructure can keep pace with the growing number of lines and the increasingly data-intensive habits of Nigerian mobile users.
