Nigeria Consumer Business

Nigeria · Consumer markets

How Nigeria’s data usage changed as the share of 4G and 5G rose

Nigeria recorded 1.73 million terabytes of data usage in September 2026, 51.0% more than in the same month of 2025. The regulator’s mobile technology mix showed 4G at 54.37% and 5G at 5.05%. Follow monthly traffic, broadband subscriptions and the technology mix side by side from January 2023.

Sources checked

Nigeria Consumer Business Editorial Team

Monthly readings through September 2026A year of traffic, broadband subscriptions and technology mix

Data usage

Scale · 0 TB to 1,756,404.82 TB

  • Oct 20251,235,459.47 TB
  • Nov 20251,236,544.1 TB
  • Dec 20251,386,238.23 TB
  • Jan 20261,385,536.04 TB
  • Feb 20261,260,060.27 TB
  • Mar 20261,422,764.54 TB
  • Apr 20261,414,848.7 TB
  • May 20261,504,067.36 TB
  • Jun 20261,532,172.67 TB
  • Jul 20261,662,021.45 TB
  • Aug 20261,756,404.82 TB
  • Sep 20261,731,947.97 TB

Switch between terabytes, subscription counts and technology shares. Each measure uses its own scale.

Source 1

September was below August but above earlier Septembers

NCC’s national data usage total for September 2026 was 1,731,947.97 TB. That was 1.39% below the 1,756,404.82 TB reported in August 2026. The same-month comparison shows a different timescale. The September total was 653,257.86 TB in 2023, 850,249.09 TB in 2024 and 1,147,133.24 TB in 2025. Source 1

4G accounted for more than half the technology mix

The 4G share in NCC’s technology table rose from 44.96% in September 2024 to 51.56% in September 2025 and 54.37% in September 2026. The 2G share fell from 43.53% to 36.42% across the same two years. Subscriber mix measures adoption across network generations and provides no breakdown of the terabytes carried over each technology. Source 1

5G gained share from a small base

NCC reported 5G at 2.19% in September 2024, 3.37% in September 2025 and 5.05% in September 2026. The two-year increase was 2.86 percentage points. Meanwhile 3G fell from 6.64% in September 2025 to 4.16% a year later. Figures are rounded by the regulator, so monthly technology shares may add to slightly more or less than 100%. Source 1

Broadband subscriptions and penetration move together

NCC reported 128,020,463 broadband subscriptions and 59.05% penetration in September 2026, up from 126,217,174 and 58.22% in August. That was a net increase of just over 1.8 million subscriptions across the two monthly records. A broadband subscription is a counted service line. A person can hold more than one subscription, so the counts should be read as connections. Source 1

The three tables track different quantities

Monthly terabytes capture aggregate use, broadband subscriptions count lines that meet the regulator’s broadband criteria, and the technology percentages show how the subscriber base is distributed. Comparing all three by month helps distinguish changes in traffic from changes in connection counts and technology adoption. The underlying tables do not assign national traffic to households, operators or network generations. Source 1

Sources

Open the data and source notes