According to the July 2026 industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), MTN Nigeria has become the first local operator to exceed 100 million active users. The total number of mobile lines in service across Nigeria has reached 195.11 million, with market concentration among leading operators has further increased.
In July, MTN recorded a net addition of approximately 2.22 million users, bringing its active user base to 100.86 million, accounting for roughly 51.76% of the national mobile market share. Airtel ranked second with 66.76 million users, holding a share of about 34.26%; Globacom had 23.63 million users, while T2 (formerly 9mobile) had only 3.61 million users. Together, MTN and Airtel control over 85% of the market share. The total number of mobile lines nationwide increased by 2.88 million month-on-month from 192.23 million in June, indicating a continued market recovery, though it has not yet returned to the historical peak before the mandatory NIN-SIM real-name verification policy was introduced.
MTN’s over-50% market share means the vast majority of cross-border enterprise SMS traffic relies on its channels. The operator’s Sender ID policies, wholesale rates, and anti-fraud risk control rules will directly affect the overall delivery performance of A2P SMS services in Nigeria. As the second-largest operator, Airtel is also an important traffic channel, while the remaining small portion of traffic is distributed across the Globacom and T2 networks. The expansion of operators' user bases will also exert greater operational pressure on SMS firewalls and fraudulent SMS interception systems.
