· Data consumption pushes Nigeria’s local traffic to 1Tbps
· Nigerian network service ranks 105th in terms of quality
· Drop in smartphone cost to increase data consumption

Though the economy remains sluggish, forcing citizens to prioritise food, groceries and transportation, many disgruntled citizens who are turning to online content as a pastime may be spending what is left from the rising food expenditure on data consumption.

While the battle for survival has forced some Nigerians to cut spending on data, operators still reported strong data usage growth on their networks in the first quarter, with the service adding over N2.37 trillion to their earnings in the last 15 months.

The number of Internet users (on narrowband) dropped moderately (from 142.16 million to 142 million) as about 107,872 customers were lost. But broadband penetration rose to 47.73 per cent from 45.61 per cent, which pushed the number of users to 103.5 million by the end of Q1 from 98 million as of the beginning of the year.

Arguably, the nail-biting hardships in Nigeria, evidenced by over 24 per cent inflation, have made many Nigerians turn to online content consumption as a pastime.

Checks by The Guardian showed that in the last 15 months, Nigerians have spent about N2.37 trillion on data consumption, according to statistics from telecom operators.

Besides, the increase in data consumption, which the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) puts at 1,000,930.6 terabytes (TB) in January 2025 but dropped to 995,876.1 TB by the end of quarter one, has pushed local Internet traffic to 1 Terabyte per second (1Tbps).

This makes Nigeria the first country to attain this height in West Africa and the second on the continent after South Africa.

The attainment of the 1Tbps traffic showed that there has been an extremely high data transfer rate in the country’s Internet space, with an immense amount of bandwidth usage. This is also validated by the amount of money Nigerians spend on data.

For instance, the mobile network operators (MNOs) have huge earnings in Q1, largely fueled by subscribers’ strong appetite for data consumption.

Checks by The Guardian showed that MTN raked in N1.59 trillion in 2024 and N529 billion in Q1, leading to 15-month earnings of N2.12 trillion.

Airtel earned $654 million (N1.05 trillion) for the full year ending March 31, 2024. In its just-released financial report for the period ending March 2025, the firm did not specify data revenue but hinted at a significant growth in data adoption rate to 73.4 million and average data usage per customer surging by 30.4 per cent to 7 GB.

Supposing the revenue remained constant in the past two years, Airtel would have earned over N1.25 trillion from data in 15 months, which is an extremely conservative estimation .

Airtel mentioned that tariff adjustments in Nigeria during the fourth quarter of the financial year contributed to accelerating revenue growth, meaning that this would have positively impacted data revenue.

Going by data from the two listed firms, over N2.37 trillion has been earned from data consumers.

There is a high possibility that the earnings could be far larger. Globacom, 9mobile and several internet service providers (ISPs), including Spectranet, FibreOne, Swift, Starlink and MainOne, are not under an obligation to disclose their financials.

The MNOs are projected to see more revenues, especially from data offerings, in 2025 after securing a 50 per cent tariff hike from the Federal Government in February 2025. But there appeared to be a slight drop in Internet usage between February and March. Data from NCC showed that subscribers consumed 893,054.8 TB of data in February, which rose to 995,876.10 TB in March. The number of Internet users dropped from 142.16 million to 142 million, where about 107,872 customers were lost.

The N2.37 trillion earned on data services by two telcos is bigger than the entire 2025 budgets of six north-east states – Bauchi (N467.8 billion), Borno (N340.6 billion), Adamawa (N225.9 billion), Taraba (N429 billion) and Yobe (N320.8 billion). The figure amounted to N1.78 billion.

On priorities of Nigerians, a report by PiggyVest showed that in 2024, 43 per cent of Nigerians had no form of savings.

The report revealed that about one-third of Nigerians earn less than N100,000 per month. In terms of spending, 33 per cent of Nigerians spent about N50,000 monthly, while 35 per cent spent between N50,000 and N99,000.

Another 19 per cent spent between N100,000 and N199,000 (up to $121), and 10 per cent spent between N200,000 and N499,000. Only two per cent spend between N500,000 and N999,000 each month, while one per cent of Nigerians spend N1 million monthly.

According to the report, food was the biggest expense for most Nigerians. Rising food prices mean families spend about 83 per cent of their income on groceries to cover basic meals.

Transportation costs take up a large part of the budget. Many Nigerians commute daily to work, school, or other places, spending nearly half their income on transport fares or fuel for their vehicles. Nigerians said they spend 48 per cent of their earnings on transportation, according to the report.

The expenses on the Internet are reflected in the rise of users on the networks. For instance, on the MTN network, active data users rose by 13 per cent to 50.3 million, with data traffic increasing by 46.4 per cent year-on-year.

The CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, said social media and streaming content have been crucial in driving data consumption in Nigeria .

“Looking ahead, we anticipate continued momentum in service revenue, underpinned by strong demand for data and a proactive approach to customer value management. The recently approved price adjustments are expected to bolster revenue performance as their full effects materialise in the coming quarters,” Toriola stated.

While total active subscriptions on the Airtel network are 64.4 million, active Internet subscriptions as of last count were 46.8 million.

The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) revealed that the 1Tbps attainment was because of huge data consumption via video calls and streaming services on Netflix and YouTube.

Netflix declared $10.5 billion Q1 revenue across its countries of operations, including Nigeria, where it has 169,600 direct subscribers.

The Chief Executive Officer, IXPN, Muhammed Rudman, also said social media platforms and the influx of data centres in the country have contributed to rising consumption.

Rudman said a speed of 1Tbps supports over one million concurrent Zoom calls, allowing students, entrepreneurs and professionals to connect and drive Nigeria’s digital revolution, saying this has been impactful.

Today in Nigeria and other parts of the world, the streaming market is a mix of Nollywood, music, comedy skits, and religious content, driven largely by a youthful demographic.

YouTube has also become a streaming platform of choice for many Nigerians, especially as Nollywood increasingly migrates to the platform following a slowdown in funding from streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

In its financial report, Airtel Africa noted that increased smartphone penetration has also played a role in the growth of data consumption.

Airtel Africa recorded a data usage per customer growth of 37.2 per cent to 8.4 GB per month from 6.2 GB, with smartphone penetration increasing 6.4 per cent to 49.5 per cent.

The firm noted that smartphone data usage per customer reached 11.2 GB per month compared to 8.8 GB per month in the prior period.

According to the GSMA, the increased uptake in data consumption through smartphones has ensured that the country stayed above the regional average, with about 29 per cent of Nigerians (about 58 million) using the internet.

GSMA noted that most Nigerians (85 per cent) use mobile Internet to make or receive video calls, 75 per cent to watch free-to-access online videos, and 54 per cent to listen to free music online.

Amid the huge revenue earnings by telecom operators, the quality of service and experience has remained low.

Nigeria’s mobile network quality, according to Opensignal’s Global Network Excellence Index, based on data collected between January 1 and March 31, 2025, ranked 105.

Opensignal launched the Global Network Excellence Index earlier this year (based on fourth quarter 2024 data) as a new tool to help regulators and mobile network operators benchmark the quality of their country’s network infrastructure versus their peers.

The quality of telephone networks in Nigeria didn’t change from what was obtained in February, where it ranked 105th out of 137 countries examined. The network maintained the same 105th position for the first quarter, unlike other countries.

For instance, in February, South Africa ranked 64th out of 137 countries in terms of mobile network excellence, outpacing some of its African peers. But based on the latest data from the first quarter of 2025 (Q1 2025), South Africa rose four places to 60th place globally.

The index is based on direct measurements of user experience, evaluating countries across three core pillars: 4G/5G availability, how consistently networks support demanding applications, as well as 4G and 5G download speeds.

It provided a country-level ranking and assessment of mobile infrastructure capabilities worldwide. The countries are segmented based on World Bank region, landmass size, and income level definitions and data.

Further analysis of the Index Report showed that in terms of availability of 4G/5G services, Nigeria ranked 100th but rated 121st on its quality. For 4G download speed, the country ranked 120th, while its 5G speed was rated 46th because fewer countries have deployed the technology.

Principal Analyst at Opensignal, Andrey Popov, said: “Most countries are seeing steady gains in users’ ability to access modern networks. This reflects ongoing investments in networks and the move away from legacy technologies, particularly in lower and upper-middle-income countries, often referred to as emerging markets, where availability gains are often more pronounced.

“While availability is rising across most regions, low-income markets are falling behind. Most have yet to launch 5G, and those that have are in early deployment stages. The slight drop in 4G/5G availability suggests users are spending more time on 2G/3G networks – or facing signal loss – due to inability to access 4G infrastructure, spectrum reallocation, or rising congestion.”

Leading the index is South Korea, driven by improvements in 4G/5G availability (up one place) and excellent, consistent quality (up six places). However, 4G download speed fell by one place (-1.7Mbps), while 5G download speed stayed at the same rank but gained +16.3Mbps.

Finland moved up one place to second in Q1 2025, helped by gains in 4G/5G availability (up one place), 4G download speed (up two places, +4.4Mbps), and 5G download speed (up five places, +7.4Mbps). Finland’s excellent, consistent quality also saw a slight +0.1 percentage point improvement.