Glo’s 3.2 Million Subscriber Loss Opens Door For 9mobile Comeback

Globacom misplaced over 3.2 million net subscribers between December 2024 and Might 2025, the steepest decline amongst Nigeria’s 4 fundamental mobile operators all through that interval.

New information from the Nigerian Communications Payment (NCC) level out that Glo’s net subscriber base decreased from 17.1 million to 13.9 million, resulting in a median lack of larger than 21,000 clients per day. This sharp decline pulls its subscriber base once more to ranges closing seen in November 2013. 

Whereas the losses signal a severe blow to Glo’s market place, it presents a unusual various for 9mobile, Nigeria’s smallest mobile group operator by individual base, to understand flooring after years of stagnation. With merely 1.4 million subscribers—decrease than 1.5% of the net market—9mobile may begin to shut the just about 10 million individual gap by improved service and strategic promoting. A web obtain of 250,000–300,000 clients month-to-month may significantly alter its market standing inside three years.

On the coronary coronary heart of this optimism is 9mobile’s landmark nationwide roaming settlement with MTN Nigeria, signed in July 2025. The three-year deal grants 9mobile’s prospects entry to MTN’s 2G–4G group infrastructure, extending the company’s attain into underserved areas and bettering information and voice reliability.

Within the meantime, Glo’s subscriber losses are rooted in every regulatory and structural challenges. The telco’s sharp subscriber loss began following the NCC’s enforcement of the SIM-NIN linkage protection, which aimed to sanitise Nigeria’s mobile subscriber database. 

In March 2024, Glo reported 62.1 million full of life voice subscribers. Nevertheless by mid-September, that decide had dropped to solely 19.1 million—a scarcity of roughly 43 million clients, an important decline amongst all operators. Plenty of this low cost was attributable to Glo’s inflated subscriber numbers, which included inactive or unregistered SIMs that didn’t fulfill the model new compliance necessities.

Globacom didn’t reply to requests for suggestions. 

Nevertheless regulation tells solely part of the story. Globacom has always underinvested in its group infrastructure as compared with its mates, laying merely 13,800 km of fibre, far behind MTN Nigeria’s 31,972 km and Airtel Nigeria’s 16,112 km. This shortfall has left Glo notably weak to sector-wide challenges resembling fibre cuts, vandalism, and unreliable vitality present. 

In distinction to its rivals, which outsource their tower infrastructure to specialised corporations with the aptitude for sooner repairs and upgrades, Glo operates its 8,550 telecom towers in-house. This selection, combined with getting previous infrastructure and slower response situations, has severely restricted its means to ship fixed prime quality and safety.

Glo clients are feeling the have an effect on. Sullivan Emerald, a software program program developer primarily based in Owerri, instructed TechCabal that Glo’s service throughout the Imo State capital is unreliable. “Just some areas similar to the Imo State Authorities Residence and the World Monetary establishment house get a usable signal,” he acknowledged. Information from Uptime reveals that between January and Might 2025 alone, Globacom expert 102 fundamental group outages nationwide.

The operator’s governance development has moreover come beneath scrutiny. The company stays tightly managed by its founder, Mike Adenuga, with little separation between possession and administration. This centralised development has hindered innovation and made it troublesome to attract top-tier administration. In Might 2025, newly appointed CEO Ahmad Farroukh resigned just one month into the job, reportedly attributable to disagreements over administration autonomy. Globacom’s credibility has moreover taken profitable from regulatory run-ins. Together with being penalised for failing to register over 40 million subscribers with respectable Nationwide Identification Numbers (NINs), the company has confronted disconnection threats over unpaid interconnection fees owed to MTN and Airtel.

In distinction, 9mobile is beginning to chart a turnaround. Its roaming settlement with MTN, endorsed by the NCC as a model for infrastructure sharing and digital inclusion, permits it to extend safety with out heavy capital outlays. The switch is a key pillar in 9mobile’s $3 billion restoration plan.

9mobile didn’t reply to a request for comment.

Nonetheless, not everybody appears to be happy that 9mobile’s rise is assured. Wole Adetuyi, CEO of Swift Telephone Neighborhood (STN), a set landline telephone agency, cautioned that 9mobile’s success will depend upon sustained funding and clear governance. 

“9mobile has a appropriately constituted board,” he well-known, “nevertheless the question is whether or not or not they’ve—or are ready to current—the financing needed to scale.”

Adetuyi gives that Glo may nonetheless get higher with the becoming reforms. The operator may nonetheless regain its footing if it addresses its firm governance factors, appoints an neutral board and CEO, and permits new patrons to come back again in with precise decision-making vitality. Moreover, 9mobile is simply not very clear about the best way it intends to spice up the $3 billion capital and what it’d do with it should patrons agree to provide capital. Equally important is that following the deal with MTN, 9mobile would want to share a bulk of its earnings with MTN Nigeria for the following three years. Due to this fact, elevating $3 billion from its earnings is unlikely besides it shortly diversifies into totally different corporations, starting with its fintech vertical, 9PSB. 

Telecom consultants like Diseye Isoun, CEO of Content material materials Oasis, an net service provider, and Ladi Okuneye, CEO of UniCloud Africa, a cloud computing experience provider, acknowledged top-of-the-line technique to speedy restoration for 9mobile is specializing in establishing out a mobile digital group operator (MVNO) model. 

“They mainly need to take a look at themselves as an MVNO,” Okuneye acknowledged. “It’s finest they leverage one other individual’s infrastructure.” 

For now, the race between Globacom and 9mobile is far much less about dominance and additional about survival. Nevertheless with the becoming strikes, 9mobile might lastly be succesful to interrupt from the underside of the pack.

Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is once more in Lagos on October 15–16! Be part of Africa’s prime founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early fowl tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com