Nigeria’s 5G market share hits 5% as 3G continues to decline

Nigeria’s 5G market share has now crossed 5% for the first time since the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) started recording the network share in May 2023. In contrast to 5G’s positive growth, 3G continues to decline, signalling its gradual exit from the market. 

According to the latest industry data, 5G increased from 4.92% in August to 5.05% in September 2026. However, the growth is still slow, considering the mobile broadband subscription rate and rising demand for high-speed data among Nigerians.

Also read: Nigeria is phasing out 3G, while 2G is yet alive, and 5G lags below 5%.

5G market share grew continuously every single month from 3.77% in December 2025 to 5.05% in September 2026; market dynamics and increased penetration of internet users put pressure on market share to grow faster than the current pace. 

Moving from 3.77% in December 2025 to 5.05% in September 2026 means 5G market share grew by just 1.28 percentage points (pp) over nine months, averaging an increase of about 0.14 pp per month. At this pace, it will take roughly seven months just to climb a single pp.

At the current growth rate, Nigerians will have to wait for another seven months (April 2027) for 5G to reach 6%.

However, the growth is still something to celebrate. It shows how 5 G smartphone affordability is expanding and mid-range 5G devices are entering the Nigerian market. Also, sustained capital expenditure by MTN and Airtel to expand 5G coverage sites across urban centres like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt is making a significant impact.

For instance, Airtel Nigeria’s CEO Dinesh Balsingh, during its Open Network Launch, said that the operator has deployed more than 1,000 5G telecom towers in 2026 as part of its sustainability investment drive and effort to improve network quality for subscribers. Accelerated deployment is expected to increase the growth of the high-speed network share. 

The growth comes at a time when fixed Wireless Access (FWA) of 5G ODU services and broadband routers are increasingly substituting fixed connections.

5G surpasses 3G

In contrast, 3G is now facing a steady decline after falling from 4.27% to 4.16% in September 2026, indicating a consistent drop from 5.32% in April 2026. In August 2026, 5G at 4.92% officially surpassed 3G at 4.27% for the first time. 5G has now widened its lead over 3G (5.05% vs 4.16%), showing the gradual exit of the network. 

Internet subscribers (excluding internet service providers) have now reached 160.9 million from 158.5 million in August 2026. 

In the mobile network contribution (160.4 million), MTN Nigeria led with 86.5 million, followed by Airtel Nigeria with 57.2 million. Globacom added 151,000 new internet users to reach 15.9 million, while T2mobile (9mobile) stood at 810,010, the same as August and July 2026. 

Internet data usage fell slightly to 1.731 million terabytes of data consumption from 1.756 million in August. In spite of the fall, September’s data consumption is the second-highest yet, revealing that Nigerians are still data guzzlers. 

With 4G and 5G accounting for a combined 59.42% market share, most internet users have usage patterns that let apps load higher-resolution graphics, richer media, and real-time data packets much faster. 

Nigerians are increasingly shifting from Pay-TV to spending more time on social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Netflix, and Instagram, which use massive amounts of bandwidth. Streaming in HD or 4K can burn anywhere from 1GB to 3GB per hour, compared to 350MB for lower resolutions. Also, short-form auto-playing videos on TikTok and Instagram consume roughly 2MB to 20MB per brief clip.

Also read: 38% of African women are now internet users, up from 23% in 2020 – ITU.