Nigeria added about 2.3 million mobile subscriptions in August 2026, and one operator took roughly three quarters of them. According to a report on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) data, the industry grew from 194.86 million in July to 197.17 million in August. MTN Nigeria rose to 102.6 million, a gain of about 1.7 million, Airtel Nigeria added about 660,000 to reach 67.4 million, and Globacom lost nearly 46,000 customers, falling from 23.63 million to 23.58 million. T2mobile, formerly 9mobile, reported 3.6 million for the second month running. The NCC’s own July table, which we could open, matches the starting points: MTN 100.86 million, Airtel 66.76 million, Glo 23.63 million, T2 3.61 million, and a July total of 194.86 million. The NCC page did not yet carry August data when we checked, so the August figures rest on the published report and not on the regulator’s table.
The arithmetic holds together. The four August figures add up to 197.18 million, in line with the reported 197.17 million total, and MTN’s 1.7 million is about 74% of the 2.3 million net industry gain. Remember that this is a share of net additions. Airtel’s gain and MTN’s gain together exceed the industry total because Glo lost customers, so the 74% describes who drove growth, not who won 74% of new sign-ups. By our own calculation from the reported figures, MTN now holds about 52% of subscriptions, Airtel about 34%, Glo about 12% and T2 under 2%. Glo’s share slipped from about 12.1% in July to about 12.0%, a small move, since 46,000 customers is about 0.2% of its base.
Two caveats apply to any reading of these numbers. First, these are active subscriptions, meaning SIM connections counted by the operators, and not unique people, because many Nigerians carry more than one SIM. Second, reports of the same months do not always agree. One outlet reported July industry-wide at 195.11 million, with MTN adding 2.22 million that month, while the report we are working from says MTN added 1.2 million in July. The NCC page lists MTN at 100.86 million for July, which both accounts share, so the difference seems to be in the month before and the totals used, and we could not resolve it. The August report is also inconsistent on MTN’s gain, calling it both close to 1.7 million and nearly 2 million, and the arithmetic supports 1.7 million.
T2mobile’s flat figure deserves cautious reading. The report suggests the unchanged count may mean it did not report on time to the NCC, which is possible but is an inference, since neither the NCC nor the operator was quoted. We could not confirm the report’s claim that T2’s count was also unchanged in May and June, so treat that pattern as unverified. What the data does show is that 3.6 million is under 2% of the market, so whether it reported or not does not change the industry picture much.
The report then turns to what growth means for networks. More subscribers mean more traffic, and the report says new users are concentrated in expanding urban areas, where many people sharing the same tower can cause congestion, citing NCC regulatory data. We could not find the study behind that claim, so treat it as the author’s argument and not a measured finding. The report also describes recent complaints about MTN’s network quality, data depletion and an outage that lasted about eight hours, which suggests that subscriber growth and service quality are not moving together.
On investment, the report says the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) put 2025 capital spending by operators and tower companies at ₦2.53 trillion, with ₦1.86 trillion planned for 2026. We found a different number. In its June 2026 response to a National Bureau of Statistics report on foreign capital inflows, ALTON put 2025 spending at ₦2.13 trillion and agreed on ₦1.86 trillion for 2026, as reported by The Guardian, Nairametrics and others. A separate headline credited a figure of about ₦2.5 trillion to the NCC. So ₦2.13 trillion is what ALTON itself appears to have said, the larger figure may be the NCC’s, and the difference of about ₦400 billion is large enough to matter if you quote either one. ALTON’s argument was that foreign capital inflow data, which showed telecom inflows falling from $80.78 million in 2025 to $7.24 million in the first quarter of 2026, misses spending funded locally from reinvested earnings.
The numbers to watch next are September’s subscriber table, whether T2 reports a changed figure, whether MTN’s pace of about 1.7 million a month continues and whether Glo’s decline turns into a trend. For startups building on mobile networks, the practical lesson is that MTN and Airtel now serve about 86% of connections between them, so reach, coverage and outages at those two shape most of the addressable market for payments, health and commerce products.
Sources: Technext, Globacom loses nearly 46,000 subscribers in August 2026; NCC industry statistics page, July 2026 operator table; Techeconomy on MTN crossing 100 million; The Guardian Nigeria on ALTON’s capex figures; Nairametrics on telecom capital importation and ALTON; IT Edge News on ALTON’s ₦2.13 trillion figure.
A note for startup founders: you can find this post, and every post we publish from here on, at raiseready.indexprima.com.
