MTN Leads but Fibre Penetration Lags in Nigeria

MTN Nigeria has emerged as the clear frontrunner in the country’s fibre internet market, controlling 55.2% of all connections with 176,468 subscribers as of June 2023. This represents a remarkable 97.3% growth since January, showcasing strong demand for fixed broadband services.

However, this progress occurs within a broader context where fibre remains a niche technology in Nigeria’s internet landscape. While MTN controls the majority of the fibre market, total connections stand at just 319,735—less than 0.2% of Nigeria’s 156.4 million mobile internet subscribers.

The Fibre Bottleneck

The limited penetration highlights a critical infrastructure challenge: Nigeria has hundreds of terabits of international internet capacity landing on its shores, yet insufficient fibre networks prevent this bandwidth from reaching homes and businesses inland. As Mayowa Okegbenle, CEO of PressOne, notes, “Fibre connectivity is one of the biggest infrastructure bottlenecks to Nigeria’s digital transformation.”

While the country boasts eight active subsea fibre-optic cable systems with a combined design capacity of 370 Tbps—making it one of Africa’s best-connected nations for international bandwidth—the real need lies in expanding access networks that can distribute this capacity effectively.

Competitive Landscape

MTN’s dominance is evident when comparing its performance to competitors:

  • FibreOne: 56,486 subscribers
  • ipNX: 14,698 subscribers
  • SwiftNG: 13,195 subscribers
  • Broadband Communication: 10,761 subscribers
  • Airtel: Fewer than 5,000 subscribers

This disparity suggests MTN is successfully meeting demand in areas where its fibre services are available. However, industry experts caution against viewing this as a market turning point, given the small overall size of Nigeria’s fibre subscriber base.

The Path Forward

As Mukesh Chandra, telecom infrastructure expert and former CTO at Globacom, points out, “Competition on FTTH connections will depend upon how fast both operators will deploy metro and building access fibre rings in targeted regions, cities and areas for fibre coverage.”

The challenge lies not only in connecting end-users but also in building the extensive backbone networks that can support mass adoption—a process requiring significant investment and time.