Nigeria’s data depletion puzzle

Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr Aminu Maida

Every month, the number gets bigger. In July 2026, Nigerian telecommunications subscribers consumed 1.66 million terabytes of internet data, the highest monthly volume the Nigerian Communications Commission has ever recorded. That figure followed 1.53 million terabytes in June and 1.50 million terabytes in May, up roughly 43.6 per cent from the same period in 2025.

Yet for millions of subscribers, the lived experience tells a different story. Data bundles that once seemed adequate now vanish within hours. Purchased gigabytes appear to deplete faster than they should. Social media is thick with accusations of theft by operators, and the NCC’s own figures show that 23,396 data depletion complaints were lodged against the four major operators in the first half of 2026 alone.

The frustration is real, but the explanation is more structural than most subscribers realise. Industry data points to a convergence of factors that have changed how much data the average Nigerian uses. Smartphone penetration on MTN’s network, the country’s largest, has climbed to 66.4 per cent, up from lower levels just two years ago.

More Nigerians are on 4G connections, which the NCC says now account for 54.3 per cent of total subscriptions, while 5G is steadily rising at 4.49 per cent. Faster connections mean heavier consumption per session, because applications, streaming platforms and even basic web pages are designed to take advantage of whatever bandwidth is available.

The numbers bear this out. Average monthly data usage per subscriber on the MTN network rose 15.2 per cent year-on-year to 14.8 gigabytes in the first half of 2026, according to the company’s unaudited results. Other operators report similar trends. When a subscriber who budgets for 10 gigabytes a month is actually consuming close to 15, the perception of unexplained depletion follows almost as a matter of course.

NCC Board Chairman, Idris Olorunnimbe, addressed the issue directly during a visit to operator facilities earlier in the year, acknowledging that data depletion was one of the two most common complaints reaching the commission. He noted, however, that data did not disappear without purpose, and called for more subscriber education on managing consumption.

Part of the disconnect lies in background activity. Mobile devices routinely consume data for software updates, cloud synchronisation, location services, social media notifications, and advertising content embedded in free applications, all running without the subscriber’s active awareness.

A 2026 NCC audit by the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department recommended that operators intensify awareness campaigns to educate subscribers on the need to switch off mobile data when not actively using it, a step that can reduce invisible consumption.

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Operators across the sector have begun responding.

MTN introduced daily data-usage notification reports, while MTN and Airtel Nigeria have launched web-based data calculator tools to help subscribers estimate how much data common activities consume before buying a plan.

Airtel’s version, announced in June 2026, allows users to model consumption across video streaming, voice and video calls, social media and general browsing. The NCC has also pushed for greater billing transparency as part of its consumer-centric regulatory agenda for 2026, mandating that operators simplify their offerings to ensure subscribers receive full value for their money.

The NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Aminu Maida, framed the broader context at a workshop for judges in Lagos earlier this year, noting that Nigerians now consume about 45,800 terabytes of data daily, equivalent to roughly 15.3 million hours of high-definition video streaming. That volume of consumption requires continuous infrastructure investment to sustain, and it explains the pressure that growth places on both network capacity and consumer expectations.

None of these excuses genuine service failures where they occur. But the conversation around data depletion is overdue for a shift, from suspicion of billing fraud toward a more informed understanding of what 157 million active internet users, consuming record volumes of data on faster networks and smarter devices, actually means for the monthly data plan.

Yemi Briggs, a financial and economic analyst, writes from Abuja