Customers of the big four telecom operators in the country spent about N9 trillion on airtime for their voice calls and data in 2025, pushing up telecom operators’ revenue in the last financial year.

MTN Nigeria got about N5.3 trillion in total revenue from their N90.3 million customers’ airtime purchase for the year ended December 31, 2025. This pushed them back to record a profit after tax of N1.11 trillion.

Airtel Nigeria earned about N3.1trn in revenue from airtime sales from their 60.9m customers with data revenue marking rapid growth as smartphone adoption and internet penetration continue to rise across its network.

Though Globacom and T2/9mobile have not been publishing their detailed public financials, report puts industry analysts and analysis done at estimated combined revenue from airtime to be close to N2trn for 2025. Globacom has about 22.3m customers and T2 mobile has 3.3m customers.

The increase in airtime earnings was due to sharp rise in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) recorded by the operators, according to some of their financial results and data by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

ARPU, a key telecom industry metric, measures the average amount each subscriber spends monthly on telecom services such as voice, data and digital products.

The full-year financial results released by MTN Nigeria showed that monthly ARPU rose to $3.60 in 2025 from $2.17 in 2024. If this is converted into the local currency, Naira, the company’s ARPU increased to N5,184.01 from N3,542.00.

This means that each customer on the network was spending an average of N5,184.01 per month in 2025.

This pushed the company’s revenue for the year to N5.2 trillion, a 55.1% increase when compared with the N3.3 trillion it recorded in 2024.

MTN disclosed that the number of active data subscribers grew by 11.6%, while smartphone penetration increased by 7.9 percentage points to 66.1%.

The company also recorded a 34% increase in data traffic, while average usage per subscriber rose by 20% to 13.1GB monthly, all of which boosted its ARPU.

In addition, MTN expanded its 4G population coverage by 2.1 percentage points to 84.6%, driven by accelerated investments in network infrastructure and service quality improvements.

As for Airtel Nigeria, monthly ARPU climbed to $2.4 in 2025 (full financial year ended March 31, 2026) from $1.7 in 2024.

In naira terms, the figure increased to N3,326.4 from N2,599.3. Despite the increase, an average customer on Airtel spends less monthly compared with MTN.

Airtel reported that its revenue grew by 47.4% in constant currency, largely driven by continued strength in the demand for data services and supported by tariff adjustments.

“In reported currency, revenue grew by 52.8% to $1,598m with Q4’26 revenue growth at 54.7% (40.2% in constant currency).

“The constant currency revenue growth was driven by ARPU growth of 36.7% and customer base growth of 9.4%,” the company stated.

The company’s data revenue increased by 63.6%, supported by growth in both data customers and data ARPU.

Airtel said data customer growth stood at 8.1%, while data ARPU expanded by 49.2% during the year.

Airtel Nigeria also recorded a significant rise in internet consumption, with average data usage per customer increasing by 30.8% to 11GB monthly from 8.4GB recorded in the previous year.

The increase in customer spending followed the implementation of the 50% telecom tariff adjustment approved by the NCC early last year, which raised the prices of voice calls, SMS and data bundles across the industry.

With the increment, the cost of an SMS, which stood at N4.00 for several years, was increased to N6.00, while voice call and data tariffs were also increased accordingly.

But the growing data consumption among Nigerians was identified as a major factor in lifting telecom revenues and subscriber spending.

According to the NCC, data consumption in Nigeria has been growing at an unprecedented level between last year and this year.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, disclosed recently that Nigerians are now consuming about 45,800 terabytes of data every day, reflecting the country’s rapidly growing dependence on internet services and digital platforms.

Maida said the daily consumption brought total consumed data in March 2026 to 1.42 million, compared with 995,000 terabytes recorded within the corresponding period of 2025.

However, the NCC boss said the increase in data usage by Nigerians is also putting a strain on the telecom networks, a development that has led to the poor service quality experienced by subscribers in some places recently.

But the NCC said the operators are responding to this challenge by increasing their investments in network capacity expansion. He also said the federal government is actively making efforts to stabilise the network quality.

Kwankwasiyya leader and chieftain of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has tackled Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf over comments about the governor being his political stooge.

‎Kwankwaso, in a recent interview with Trust TV, described the governor as “Abba PA,” someone he claimed to have lifted from a low level and made governor.
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Responding, ‎Governor Yusuf recently had challenged Kwankwaso, saying it was disrespectful that a 69‑year‑old Kwankwaso would call him a boy despite being 63 years old.
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‎But addressing supporters at his Miller Road residence in Kano on Wednesday, Kwankwaso said even former Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who served two terms as his deputy, could not deny once being his boy.
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‎“I heard that some people said they dislike being called boys. If not for insolence, how could [former Reps] Mai Gidan Ruwa or Aminu Goro say they were not my boys politically? How could even Ganduje deny that he was once my boy?” Kwankwaso asked.

‎Governor Yusuf’s response was the first public rebuke of the Kwankwasiyya leader since the duo parted ways earlier this year.
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‎The governor also commented on Kwankwaso’s frequent comments on his person, saying his silence should not be mistaken for fear.
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‎He further asked Kwankwaso to respect himself, otherwise he would blow open some issues.

Since the governor left Kwankwaso, the former boss has accused him of betrayal, having won election under his platform, the NNPP, only to later defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbass, has been asked to produce records of proceedings in the Green Chamber to show that a letter announcing Kingsley Chinda’s defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and resignation as Minority Leader, was read on the floor of the House. 

The request was made by the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, who recently filed a lawsuit asking an Abuja Federal High Court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from recognising Chinda as a governorship candidate of the APC.

Chinda, an ally of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, minister, Nyesom Wike, emerged the governorship candidate of the APC in the May 21, 2026, primary election, following the last-minute withdrawal of other contestants – incumbent Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Tonye Cole and Alabo Dakorinama George-Kelly.

However, the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, whose members include indigenes of Chinda’s Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency of Rivers State, approached an Abuja Federal High Court seeking to stop him from taking part in the 2027 poll.

The plaintiff argued that the lawmaker’s defection was inconsistent with the provisions of Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and pronouncements of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the defection of legislators.

To back up the claim that Chinda’s defection did not follow due process, the plaintiff has requested the Speaker of the House of Representatives to produce evidence that a letter notifying the House of the development was read on the floor during plenary.

The request was made via a letter, dated May 26, 2027, signed by Jesse Williams Amuga, Esq., Administrative Secretary,

Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners.

The letter read: “Request brought pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 2011: Request for the Hansard and Votes of Proceedings and Order Paper of each day of plenary sessions of the House of Representatives, National Assembly, during the month of March and April, 2026, or any other date to ascertain whether the records can confirm the date on which the Rt. Hon. Speaker or any other presiding officer of the House of Representatives read the official letter of resignation of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda to confirm cessation of his membership of the PDP and also to confirm his resignation as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, National Assembly.

“We write on behalf of some of the 500,000 registered constituents of Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, currently represented by Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda.

“We write to request a formal letter of response to the above-named subject-matter.

“This letter that we are requesting is a condition precedent under Section 68 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which we seek to tender as Exhibit in a lawsuit.

“We, as lawyers representing the constituents, previously wrote a letter expressing the intentions of the said constituents. A copy of the said letter dated October 2025, to the said legislator, is enclosed/attached.”

The letter was copied to the Deputy Speaker, as well as the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Following the lawsuit filed against Chinda’s candidacy in the 2027 election, a group, the Centre for Constitutional Governance and Electoral Integrity, CCGEI, had, in a statement, declared that the Rivers lawmaker had already resigned as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives before participating in the APC governorship process and had not taken part in any PDP-related activities since then.