Connect with us

Business

Nigerians Spent N9trn On Airtime in 2025 – Report

Published

on

Spread the love

 

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.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Business

Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Rises For 3rd Consecutive Month

Published

on

Spread the love

 

Nigeria’s inflation rose for the third consecutive month to 15.93 percent in May 2026 from 15.69 percent recorded in April.

 

The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index and inflation data released on Monday.

This means that in May, the country’s inflation rose on a month-on-month basis by 1.75 percent.

Also, the report showed that food inflation also skyrocketed to 16.96 percent in May, up from 16.06 percent recorded the previous month.

“In May 2026, the headline inflation rate on a month-on-month basis was 1.75 percent, which was 0.39 percent lower than the rate recorded in April 2026 (2.13 percent).

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate rose to 15.93 percent, up from 15.69 percent in April 2026 and down from 26.06 percent in the same month of the preceding year (May 2025).

“The Food inflation rate in May 2026 on a month-on-month basis was 2.98 percent, down by 0.65 percentage points from April 2026 (3.63 percent). On a year-on-year basis, it was 16.96 percent and stood at 24.55 percent in the same month of the preceding year, May 2025”.

Recall that the headline inflation rate dropped in March and April, respectively even as the Central Bank of Nigeria retained the country’s interest rate 26.50 percent in its 305th Monetary Policy meeting.

Continue Reading

Business

World Bank Ranks Nigeria’s Ports Among Top 20 Globally

Published

on

Spread the love

 

The World Bank has named Nigeria’s ports among the top 20 improved ports globally.

Word Bank disclosed this in its 2025 Container Port Performance Index, released June 2026.

According to the data, Nigeria’s ports, Tincan Island and Apapa, maintained number 10 and 12, respectively, on the World Bank’s CPP1 for 2025.

Commenting on the report, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Abubakar Dantsoho, attributed the development to improved investment in port infrastructure by President Bola Tinubu’s government.

The investor-friendliness environment provided by Tinubu he said, has also made for the gravitas needed for increased investment to implement “our port infrastructure and equipment modernization drive”.

Continue Reading

Business

Wema Bank Rewards 273 Customers in 5 for 5 Rewards Campaign

Published

on

Spread the love

 

One month after launching Season 5 of its flagship 5 for 5 Rewards campaign, Wema Bank has rewarded 273 customers with a total of ₦17.96 million, demonstrating the strong early impact of its refreshed customer rewards platform and reinforcing its commitment to rewarding everyday banking.

 

Launched on May 2, 2026, as part of the Bank’s 81st anniversary celebration, this season of the campaign introduced a more structured and inclusive rewards framework designed to encourage positive financial habits while recognising customer loyalty across the Youth, Women and Mass Market segments.

The season opened with a special anniversary activation at Ikeja City Mall, where 81 customers received ₦81,000 each, resulting in ₦6.56 million in rewards on launch day. Since then, the campaign has continued to reward customers through daily and monthly draws, with an additional 192 winners emerging within the first month.

Across the Youth segment, 37 students have received rewards worth ₦4.4 million, including 20 students who received ₦50,000 PocketMoni rewards and 17 university students who received ₦200,000 each in Tuition Support.

The Women segment also recorded strong participation, with 12 customers receiving ₦150,000 each through the #SelfCare category, while the Mass Market segment recorded the highest number of winners. Within the first month, 120 customers received daily cash rewards, and 23 customers won ₦200,000 each in the monthly draw, bringing total rewards in the category to ₦5.2 million.

Commenting on the campaign’s early impact, Wema Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Moruf Oseni, said; “At Wema Bank, we believe loyalty should be rewarded in ways that are meaningful, transparent and accessible. The response to Season 5 of the 5 for 5 Rewards campaign has been encouraging, and seeing hundreds of customers benefit within just one month reinforces our belief that everyday banking should create everyday opportunities.

Beyond rewarding transactions, we are encouraging positive financial habits while delivering real value to our customers. He added; “This is only the beginning. With more reward categories, more winners and more opportunities still ahead, we remain committed to creating meaningful impact for our customers and ensuring more Nigerians experience the value of banking with Wema.”

Customers can participate by opening or reactivating a Wema Bank account, funding it with a minimum of ₦5,000, maintaining an average monthly balance of ₦5,000, and completing at least five transactions every month using the ALAT app, Wema or ALAT cards, or *945#.

With over ₦170 million earmarked for rewards between May and December 2026, thousands more customers are expected to benefit as the campaign continues, reaffirming Wema Bank’s commitment to rewarding loyalty, promoting positive financial behaviour and delivering value beyond banking.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2026 TheColumn NG