Nigeria is back above 200 million active phone lines, two years after the SIM cut-off
Lines fell from 224.7 million to 154.9 million when unlinked SIMs were barred in 2024. September's figure was 200.3 million.
Lagos — Nigeria's telecom industry has passed 200 million active subscriptions again for the first time in two years. Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) show active lines rose by 2.9 million to 200.3 million in September 2026, from 197.4 million in August, BusinessDay reported.
What happened in 2024
The recovery reverses the steep fall that followed the government's order that every SIM card be linked to its owner's National Identification Number (NIN). Nigeria had 224.7 million active lines in December 2023. After the NCC told MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile (now T2mobile) to bar SIMs not linked to a NIN, the number fell to 154.9 million by September 2024, a loss of nearly 70 million lines.
The NIN-SIM policy, introduced in December 2020, was meant to tie phone numbers reliably to verified identities and help security agencies track criminal activity.
How the lines came back
Operators have rebuilt their subscriber numbers through new SIM activations, wider network coverage and renewed demand. BusinessDay noted that the figure counts active connections, which is not the same as the number of people using telecom services.
Source: BusinessDay, November 2026.
