Consistent with Section 89 Subsection 3(d) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (NCA 2003), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reported a rise in Nigeria’s internet penetration to 48.15 per cent in April 2025.

Industry statistics from NCC said the rise was from 47.73 per cent recorded in March 2025.

The development comes as the country’s telecommunications industry struggles with a multiple and complex business environment.

Nigeria has missed its internet penetration target for 2025.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020–2025) set an ambitious goal of achieving 70% broadband penetration by the end of 2025.

A gradual rise began since last October when penetration rose to 42.24 per cent.

In November, it climbed to 43.16 per cent, reaching 44.43 per cent in December 2024, according to NCC data.

In January this year, the Commission recorded a further rise as more Nigerians took an interest in connection with the internet, with penetration reaching 45.61 per cent.

A further rise was seen again in February to 46.58 per cent, before ascending to 47.73 per cent in March, and 48.15 per cent- the highest rise so far since the 41.56 per cent drop last September.

The NCA 2003 Act mandates NCC to monitor and report on the state of the Nigerian telecommunications industry, provide statistical analyses and identify industry trends with regard to services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance, etc. In view of this, the Commission regularly conducts studies and surveys and produces reports on the telecommunications industry, and telecommunications operators are obligated, under the terms of the licenses, to provide the NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing.

The NCC also reported that data usage dropped to 983,283.43 terabytes in April, down from 995,876.10 terabytes in March.

The decline followed a fall earlier in the year, when data consumption dropped from one million terabytes in January to 893,054.80 terabytes in February. The dip was accompanied by a loss of approximately one million internet subscribers.