NBS: Active voice subscribers now 219m, dropped by 3% in Q1 2024

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the number of active voice subscribers in Nigeria dropped to 219.3 million in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.

In a report on Monday titled ‘Telecoms Data: Active Voice and Internet per State, Porting and Tariff Information (Q1 2024),’ NBS said this indicates a 3.03 percent decrease compared to 226.16 million recorded in the same period in 2023.

“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, active voice subscribers fell by 2.41%,” the bureau said.

The bureau also said a total number of 164,368,292 active internet subscribers were recorded in Q1 2024 compared to the 157,551,104 reported in Q1 2023.

This shows a year-on-year increase of 4.33 percent, while it grew by 0.32 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

NBS said in state profile analysis, the highest number of active voice subscribers was recorded in Lagos state at 25,956,074, followed by Ogun with 12,672,990 and Kano with 11,931,128.

According to the data, Bayelsa recorded the least with 1,608,473, followed by Ebonyi and Ekiti with 1,885,657 and 1,969,568, respectively. 

It said Lagos had the highest number of active internet subscribers with 18,841,943, followed by Ogun with 9,528,795 and Kano with 9,067,983.

The bureau said the least number of active internet subscribers was recorded in Bayelsa with 1,201,601, followed by Ebonyi with 1,401,626 and Ekiti with 1,545,729.

NBS, however, said MTN had the highest share of subscriptions in Q1 2024.