Data Usage Increases as Nigerians Consume Almost 1 Million Terabytes of Data in 1 Year

• Despite economic hardship, Nigerian internet users consumed almost 1 million terabytes of data in one year
• Despite the volume, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission shows that active internet users declined during the same period
• The NCC still targets 70% broadband adoption in Nigeria by the end of 2025, even though current adoption is less than 50%

Legit.ng journalist Ruth Okwumbu-Imafidon has over a decade of experience in business reporting across digital and mainstream media.

Despite the harsh economic conditions in Nigeria, official data confirms increased data consumption by Nigerian consumers.

Across different networks, Nigerian internet users consumed 973,445 terabytes of data. This represents almost 36% growth in data consumption from 713,200 terabytes in 2023 to 973,445 terabytes in 2024.

This consumption is pooled from about 139.2 million Nigerians using internet service under their mobile network operator, as reported on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) website.

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The data consumption runs from December 2023 to December 2024, explaining why mobile network operators reported impressive revenue from data subscriptions despite the economic downturn.

Recall that MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria reported a combined total of N3.67tn from their voice and data services in H1, 2024.

Internet users decline as data usage increases

The NCC data also shows that the economic downturn may be responsible for the reduction in the number of internet users, even though data consumption went up.

The VANGUARD reports that the number of active internet users declined from 163.8 million users as of December 2023, to 139.2 million users by December 2024.

This means that about 25 million Nigerians stopped using the Internet in 2024.

There are suggestions that this number may have been influenced by the enforcement of the National Identity Number (NIN) linkage to SIM cards. Interestingly, there was also a sharp decrease in teledensity during the year, with active phone connections dropping from 224.7 million to 164.9 million.

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Given these reductions, the growth of data consumption could be translated to mean that while internet users reduced, fewer users are consuming much more data due to activities like remote work or streaming online.

This data from NCC does not include users of the recently introduced Starlink, which some Nigerians have adopted.

4G still leading as 5G adoption increases

The data shows that 4G now accounts for about 42.7% of internet usage in Nigeria, even though 5G is gradually increasing and now accounts for 2.3% of internet users.

While this may signify some growth, it is still worrisome that more than half of Nigeria’s internet users are still stuck with older technologies, despite the availability of faster internet speeds under 4G and 5G.

This could pose a significant threat to the NCC’s ambition to achieve 70% internet adoption by the end of 2025, as the current adoption is still at 44.43%.

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How to control data usage

In related news, Legit.ng recently shared tips to control data usage on mobile phones and other gadgets.

One way is for users to set data usage limits on apps that run on the phone background and consume lots of data without the user's knowledge.

Another tip is that users should disable automatic updates from the mobile playstores or app store and change the settings to only update using Wi-Fi.

Source: Legit.ng