Nigerian telcos are significantly increasing their capital expenditures to meet the escalating data demand in the country.
Nigerian Telcos; MTN Nigeria Communications Plc together with Airtel Africa lead investment activities aimed at boosting network capacity and service delivery services for their expanding customer base.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reports an increasing internet consumption which telcos in Nigeria are addressing through their current response plan.
The Nigerian Communications Commission documented a 93.35 percent growth of internet data utilization during this period with measurements showing a substantial rise from 517,670.15 terabytes (TB) in January 2023 to 1,000,930.6 TB in January 2025.
The data consumption increase exclusively stems from customers embracing digital services such as streaming and social media platforms.
MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola explained that social media platforms and streaming services act as main factors behind data usage growth.
The MTN data traffic showed a 42.9 percent growth and subscribers used an average of 11.2GB each month during the fourth quarter of 2024.
Airtel Africa confirmed that their customers’ monthly data consumption rose 37.2 percent to reach 8.4GB from the initial 6.2GB.
The monthly usage of smartphones by customers rose to 11.2GB from 8.8GB previously.
Because the demand has surged both Airtel Africa and MTN Nigeria invested heavily in network infrastructure expansion.
The network expansion efforts of MTN during Q4 2024 consumed N225.85 billion which represented 50.93 percent of its annual N443.48 billion investment.
The organization maintains its dedication to enduring network development even though its investment dropped by 1.30 percent annually.
The company provided $456 million worth of funding for capital expenditures during the nine months of 2024 for its Nigerian subscribers who reached 57.67 million.
Before March 2025 next year Airtel Africa aims to pour an additional $294 million into its operations for a total spending amount of $750 million.
Airtel CEO Sunil Taldar declared that the company will continue its network expansion effort to support future network growth.
The economic challenges and foreign debt reduction initiatives forced MTN and Airtel to cut their network investment spending during 2024.
Both companies made $1.2 billion worth of foreign debt repayments thus limiting their infrastructure development capabilities.
The diminished spending resulted in a reduction of real revenue which restricted the networks from expanding.
Nigerian telecommunications companies continue to invest in their networks because of rising data consumption demands.
The companies strengthen network infrastructure with the deep intention to develop Nigeria’s digital economy.
This will go a long way delivering better services across millions of nationwide users
