…as active subscribers rise to 173.5m
Within nine months, starting from January 2025 to September 2025, Nigerians spent an estimated N2,488,717,388,050 on data, consuming a total of 9,391,386.37 terabytes of data.
This substantial expenditure was calculated by New Telegraph based on an average market rate of N265,000 for one terabyte (1TB) of data, a figure derived from a composite analysis of prices from various service providers, as there is no single official average price.
This level of data consumption in 2025 is increasing compared to previous year, where a total of 9,763,595.18 terabytes was consumed in the whole of 2024. Tbe statistics indicates that data consumption in 2025 will be significantly higher if the last quarter consumption is added compared to 2024. In September alone, they used 1,147,133.24 terabyte, estimated at N304.75 billion.
The total data used in August was 1,152,347.24TB; 1,131,255.9TB in July, while June consumption was 1,044,073.08TB. It was 1,043,431.98TB in May; 983,283.43TB in April, and 995,876.1TB in March, while total data usage in February and January, 2025 were calculated at 893,054.8TB and 1,000,930.6TB respectively.
The latest industry statistics, released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), highlight a nation with a growing appetite for data even as costs remain significant. This activity occurred alongside a continued expansion of the country’s active telecoms subscriber base, which rose to 173.54 million in September from 171.57 million in August.
The teledensity, indicating the number of active telephone lines per 100 inhabitants, consequently increased to 80.05% from 79.14 per cent. The data service market itself is broken down into two main categories: Mobile Data for smartphones and MiFis, and Home Broadband (Fibre).
While mobile data from providers like MTN, Glo, Airtel, and T2 is the most common access method, it is also the most expensive, with an estimated average cost for 1TB ranging from N180,000 to N350,000. In contrast, a Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) connection offers a much lower estimated average cost, between N25,000 and N70,000 for the same volume.
The latest industry statistics also showed that telecom operators connected an additional 569,538 users to the internet across their various networks. Broadband penetration recorded an uptick, reaching 49.34 per cent and representing 106.97 million connections to at least a 3G network.
