Internet usage in Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, has declined for the first time in months. This is also following the recent drop in mobile subscription during the year.
The Nigerian Communications Commission, in its latest statistics report, as seen on the Punch newspaper, revealed that data use decreased by 0.82 percent to 850,249.09 terabytes in September from 853,954.05 terabytes in August.
This is the first time data use has declined in Nigeria since February 2024.
The reduction is consistent with the trend of mobile subscriptions during the same time period.
NIN verification
The recent debacle concerning the linking of phone lines to the National Identification Number is in large part responsible for the decline in mobile subscriber base.
Not too far back, the country's top telecommunications companies MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, deactivated a total of 64.3 million lines.
The disconnection of SIM cards was enforced following the initiative by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to tighten security and reduce fraud.
However, some affected customers at the time noted that the discrepancies in their National Identification Number (NIN) and SIM registration were likely caused by an error mismatch between the information they provided during their SIM registration and what was registered on their SIM cards.
The Punch's report revealed that as of September 2024, the active subscriptions were 154.6 million, down from 219 million in March.
Globacom lost 43 million lines and finished September with just 19.1 million users, down from 62.1 million active subscriptions in March.
9mobile lost around 8 million customers, going from 11.6 million in March to 3.6 million by September.
MTN lost 3.7 million subscribers, ending up with 78 million active subscriptions by September.
Airtel had 53.7 million subscribers at the end of September, down from 63.3 million in March.
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