Time for e-voting as NBS records 171 million active phone subscribers in Nigeria
Man making call (Getty Image)
As Nigeria pushes to reduce costs of elections in Nigeria, e-voting may the way out with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirming that the telecom industry maintained strong performance through the second quarter of 2025, with active voice subscriptions rising 171,730,06.
According to NBS, this shows a growth rate of 0.48 per cent compared to the 170,904,257 reported in the second quarter of 2024.
This is contained in the NBS Telecoms Data: Active Voice and Internet, Porting and Tariff Information Report for Q2 2025, released in Abuja on Monday.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the report showed that active voice subscribers decreased by 0.57 per cent from the 172,708,410 recorded in Q1 2025.
Also, the report revealed a total of 141,171,679 active internet subscribers were recorded in Q2 of 2025 compared to the 136,497,384 reported in Q2 2024.
“This represents a 3.42 per cent increase in active internet subscriptions year-on-year.
“While on a quarter-on-quarter basis, active internet subscribers grew by -0.62 per cent from the 142,053,537 recorded in Q1 of 2025,’’ it stated.
On state-by-state analysis, the report showed that Lagos State had the highest number of active voice subscribers in Q2 2025 with 20,469,762, followed by Kano with 11,006,922 and Ogun with 9,759,254.
“On the other hand, Bayelsa still recorded the least number of 1,148,655 voice subscribers, followed by Ebonyi and Ekiti with 1,633,547 and 1,667,558, respectively.
Similarly, the report said Lagos State had the highest number of active internet subscribers in Q2 2025 with 17,591,914, followed by Kano with 8,896,247 and Ogun with 8,458,904.
“On the other hand, Bayelsa recorded the least number of internet subscribers with 1,288,960, followed by Ebonyi and Ekiti with 1,288,960 and 1,422,334, respectfully.”
The NBS report showed that MTN maintained its status quo as the telecommunication service provider with the highest share of subscriptions in Q2 2025.
