Economic hardship: Nigerian internet usage falls, 64.3 million lines deactivated

The recent economic challenges in Nigeria have led to a notable decline in internet usage, with 64.3 million lines deactivated due to a verification exercise linked to National Identification Numbers.

This marks the first drop in data consumption since February 2024, as total data usage fell to 850,249.09 terabytes in September.

Major operators like Globacom and 9mobile faced significant losses, with Globacom dropping from 62.1 million to 19.1 million subscribers and 9mobile from 11.6 million to 3.6 million.

The industry now has 154.6 million active subscriptions as of September 2024, down from the 219 million reported in March.

Despite the reduction, MTN retained its market leadership with 78 million active subscriptions, though it also lost 3.7 million users during the verification exercise.

Airtel, holding the second spot, ended September with 53.7 million subscriptions, a decline from the 63.3 million it had in March, a loss of 9.6 million subscriptions over six months.