Nigeria’s unused or abandoned mobile lines across all networks, including MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile increased to 103.3 million in August 2022.
The subscriber data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that four mobile network operators had a total of N312.9 million connected lines as of August.
However, active lines across the networks at the end of the month stood at 209.6 million.
This indicates that the telecom operators were able to generate revenue from 67% of their customers in the period under review.
A mobile line is considered to be inactive if it is not used by the subscriber to make or receive calls and/or access data services for 90 days, at the minimum.
The Q2 financial results of MTN and Airtel show that the rising inactive lines are impacting the telcos’ revenue negativity.
In its results for the period, Airtel disclosed that a total of 8.3 million of its customers were yet to submit their NINs as of June 30 this year, which according to it, resulted “in a loss of approximately $34m revenue in the quarter and a corresponding impact of 7.5 percentage points on the growth rate.”
On its part, MTN said it is anticipating a churn in the number of its active subscribers for Q3 as many of its subscribers were yet to link their SIMs, thus remaining barred. The telco also observed that rather than linking their old SIMs, some subscribers were going for new SIMs.