As 5G-enabled gadgets flood the market, the infrastructure to help them stays insufficient, threatening the nation’s digital transformation objectives, a brand new report has revealed.
Throughout city hubs corresponding to Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, Nigerians are snapping up 5G-capable smartphones at an unprecedented fee.
A worldwide forecast tasks a 13.2 % progress in 5G gadget gross sales in 2025, following a 16 % surge in 2024.
Within the Center East and Africa area, smartphone shipments grew by three % year-on-year within the second quarter (Q2) of 2025, fueled by promotions and bettering financial circumstances.
Reasonably priced 5G-compatible telephones from manufacturers corresponding to Xiaomi and Samsung now account for almost half of recent smartphone purchases in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, the fact on the bottom tells a unique story. Solely 12.7 % of Nigeria’s cell towers are 5G-enabled, and protection is confined to pick city pockets, leaving rural areas and even some state capitals disconnected.
The Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) estimates that 5G companies attain lower than 5 % of the inhabitants, in comparison with 45 % for 4G.
A latest NCC-Ookla examine revealed a 70.9 % 5G protection hole in Lagos, the place 41,057 5G-capable gadgets have been detected however unable to connect with 5G networks. In Abuja, a 65.6 % hole impacts 16,143 gadgets.
The implications are important for Nigeria’s digital economic system. Lagos, a metropolis of over 20 million and Africa’s largest metropolis, is a hub for tech and innovation, but its restricted 5G entry stifles progress in sectors corresponding to real-time knowledge analytics, distant work, and digital commerce.
Learn additionally: Mobile industry to drive $270bn GDP growth in Africa by 2030 – GSMA report
In Abuja, the nation’s capital, the protection hole threatens Nigeria’s aspirations to guide Africa’s digital economic system. “System adoption displays confidence in 5G’s potential, however with out strong community growth, we’re making a bottleneck,” warned Jide Awe, a telecom analyst.
Awe famous that Nigeria dangers lagging friends like South Africa, the place 5G protection is extra widespread regardless of comparable financial challenges.
Whereas 5G-enabled telephones are inexpensive, it’s nonetheless out of attain of many Nigerians. Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria, highlighted the affordability of 5G smartphones as a important problem, with costs starting from N120,000 ($75) to over N2 million ($1,250), out of attain of the 88.4 million Nigerians dwelling in excessive poverty.
“The most important barrier is the price of handsets,” Toriola mentioned, noting MTN’s collaboration with the Ministry of Communications to advertise native smartphone meeting and supply financing by its MoMo platform.
In the meantime, operational challenges corresponding to 1,100 every day fibre cuts, 545 entry denials, and 99 circumstances of generator and battery theft, as reported by the NCC, severely disrupt community reliability.
Regulators have unveiled reforms to sort out these challenges. A 50 % tariff hike authorised in January 2025 has unlocked $1 billion in tools investments since June, geared toward upgrading base stations and increasing fibre backbones.
The NCC additionally signed a Memorandum of Understanding with federal and state ministries to curb disruptions from highway development and vandalism, designating telecom infrastructure as Crucial Nationwide Infrastructure (CNI). “Reducing fibre is now a legal offence, which is able to safeguard our investments,” mentioned Dinesh Balsingh, CEO of Airtel Nigeria.
In the meantime, each MTN and Airtel are leveraging expertise to optimise 5G deployment.
Yahaya Ibrahim, MTN’s chief technical officer, emphasised AI-driven demand planning and fault detection to prioritise high-demand city facilities corresponding to Lagos and Abuja. “We received’t deploy 5G the place there aren’t any 5G handsets,” Ibrahim mentioned, noting that solely 4.9 million 5G-capable gadgets, largely iPhone 13 fashions and above, are in use nationwide.
In the meantime, Airtel is accelerating its 5G rollout in cities, utilizing AI to observe billions of every day community interactions and deploying small-cell options corresponding to mini antennas in dense areas like Pc Village and Victoria Island. “We’re specializing in buyer expertise APIs to pinpoint weak spots and act quick,” Balsingh defined.
Airtel can also be increasing its fibre infrastructure to help 5G, partnering with satellite tv for pc suppliers corresponding to Starlink and OneWeb to deliver 4G and 5G to rural areas. Over the previous two years, the corporate relocated 3,000 kilometers of fibre to spice up resilience.
Nevertheless, rural areas stay underserved, with community speeds as much as 50 % slower than in city facilities, exacerbating Nigeria’s digital divide.
Operators are calling for presidency subsidies to offset prices. “Increasing entry to high-speed networks is important for Nigeria’s digital transformation. Nobody must be left behind,” an NCC spokesperson advised BusinessDay.
