10 October 2023
The number of subscriptions to 5G services has crossed the 500,000 mark in Nigeria, a year after the commercial launch of the technology in the country, reports Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
In September 2022, MTN Nigeria became the first operator to launch commercial 5G in the country with Ericsson technical support. The company was joined this year by Mafab Communications in January and Airtel in June.
5G is expected to help accelerate the government’s broadband adoption targets. The country is targeting a broadband penetration rate of around 70% by 2025 and 50% before the end of 2023. According to the latest data from the NCC, Nigeria had 89.73 million broadband subscriptions as of July 2023, representing a penetration rate of 47.01%.