Nigeria’s internet data consumption has surged by roughly 170 percent in three years, reaching a record 1.66 million terabytes in July 2026, even as the number of mobile lines in the country has declined. The sharp increase suggests that the growth in Nigeria’s digital economy is being driven increasingly by heavier internet use among existing connections, rather than simply by more people coming online.
Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that Nigerians consumed 1,662,021.45 TB of internet data in July, up from 1,532,172.67 TB in June. That represents an 8.5 percent month-on-month increase and the highest monthly consumption recorded in the 12 months to July.
The scale of the increase becomes clearer over a longer period. Monthly internet traffic stood at 615,207 TB in July 2023, meaning consumption has risen by about 170% in three years.
At the same time, active internet subscribers reached 157.7 million in July, up from 156.9 million in June and about 140.3 million in August 2025. While the number of internet subscribers has expanded over the past year, the pace of growth is far smaller than the increase in traffic.
Nigerians are using the internet more heavily
The latest figures show that Nigeria’s connectivity story is shifting from simply getting more people online to how much data connected users consume.
Monthly internet traffic increased from 1.15 million TB in August 2025 to 1.66 million TB in July 2026. Although consumption fell from 1.39 million TB in January to 1.26 million TB in February, it subsequently recovered, reaching 1.42 million TB in March, 1.41 million TB in April, 1.50 million TB in May and 1.53 million TB in June.
The July record therefore continues a broader upward trend rather than representing a one-off spike.
In early August, TechMedia Africa reported that MTN customers use 14.8GB per month on average, as active users of the telecommunication firm reached 55.7 million.
The increase reflects the growing intensity of digital activity across the country. Mobile internet is increasingly being used for payments, commerce, remote work, education, entertainment, social media and other services that require substantially more data than traditional voice and messaging.
This also means that measuring connectivity only by the number of subscribers gives an incomplete picture of Nigeria’s digital expansion. A relatively stable or moderately growing subscriber base can generate substantially more traffic as users spend more time online and consume richer digital content.
Network investment is trying to keep pace with demand
The surge in traffic is occurring alongside continued investment in Nigeria’s telecommunications infrastructure.
The NCC said mobile network operators invested more than ₦2.13 trillion in infrastructure and network upgrades in 2025, while tower companies invested another ₦373.8 billion. The investment supported the addition or upgrade of more than 2,800 telecommunications sites.
Operators have been expanding 4G and 5G capacity, upgrading network equipment and extending fibre backhaul, particularly in areas experiencing high demand.
That expansion has continued in 2026. According to the NCC, operators committed to adding or upgrading more than 12,000 sites during the year, with nearly 3,000 already delivered. More than 730 additional 5G sites had also been deployed across 27 states.
Some network-performance indicators have improved alongside the investment. Median download speeds increased from 16.5 Mbps in January 2024 to 20 Mbps in 2026, while 4G penetration rose from 45% to 54% over the same period.
The challenge is shifting from access to capacity
Nigeria’s rising data consumption is also exposing a different infrastructure challenge.
The question is increasingly not just whether Nigerians can connect to the internet, but whether the infrastructure supporting those connections can reliably handle the volume of traffic being generated.
That infrastructure includes fibre networks, base stations, spectrum, power systems and the core networks that move data between users and digital services. Weaknesses in any of these layers can translate into slower speeds, interruptions and poor service quality as demand rises.
In August, TechMedia Africa reported that more than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents were recorded across Nigeria in the first six months of 2026, with road construction, excavation and other civil works responsible for a large share of the damage.
The government has acknowledged the infrastructure gap. In May, Communications Minister Bosun Tijani pointed to years of underinvestment and announced plans for nationwide open-access fibre infrastructure through Project BRIDGE, alongside new tower deployments and expanded satellite capacity.
The latest traffic figures put that infrastructure challenge in sharper perspective. Nigeria is generating dramatically more internet traffic than it did three years ago, while the growth in its connected population has been much less dramatic.
The implication is that future improvements in Nigeria’s digital economy will depend not only on connecting more people, but also on building enough network capacity to support the increasingly data-intensive behaviour of those already online.